• Home
• About NBAA
• Award Nominees
• Young Business Achievers
• Previous Breakfast Speakers
• Previous Award Winners
• Sponsorship
• NBAA Partners
• Contact Us

Location

Rydges Bell City Hotel Ballroom
205 Bell Street Preston 3072

Enter main car park off Hotham Street

Click here for a larger map.

'FORMULA FOR SUCCESS", Paul Stoddart, International Businessman and ex F1 Minardi owner and Inaugural Business Ambassador for Melbourne's north

“Formula for Success” Paul Stoddart

Join us for this special NBAA Grand Prix breakfast featuring Paul Stoddard, international businessman and Australian aviation and motor racing magnate. 

Paul will share his experiences as he reflects on the rigours of staying on top in two of the world’s most competitive industries along with providing his own unique insights into the current global financial crisis.

Paul was born in Coburg and attended Preston Technical School. Paul’s first business was a car dealership; he was a racing patron from the start and entered a number of his own GT cars in various local competitions.

He is best known in Australia as the former owner of the Minardi Formula 1 team and the business airline Oz-Jet which he later sold to Sydney based HeavyLift Cargo Airlines.

He later took the Minardi brand into the Champ Car World Series after his purchase of a portion of CTE-HVM Racing which he renamed Minardi Team USA for 2007.

The deal that really set Paul up was made in 1989, when the global economy was on the brink of a major downturn similar to today.

One day, without apparent precedent, the Royal Australian Air Force offered to sell Paul an unused fleet of five BAC 1-11 aircraft and 41 shipping containers of spare parts. Paul agreed, intending to sell them at a profit to an airline or charter service, but as he got no immediate offers he decided to begin a charter service himself for the express purpose of shuttling gamblers to and from Tasmania, the only Australian state which allowed gambling at the time. After Paul moved to England, this company became European Aviation and has had much success as a VIP charter service.

Paul seized this slice of good luck and established one of the world’s biggest airline spare parts operations, making an estimated profit of 900% on the 41 containers!

Paul was appointed as the Inaugural Business Ambassador for Melbourne’s north in 2003 and strongly believes in and supports the development of Melbourne’s northern region.

.