Name John Hughes
Company John Hughes
Group
Position CEO
HQ Pe r t h , WA
Employees ~550EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW
W
hen I left school I couldn’t get a job that I particularly liked,”
says John Hughes, CEO of the John Hughes Group. “I was
going to be an assistant accountant but nobody offered me
a job. I ended up getting a job in Canberra as a personnel
cadet in the Department of External Territories. I had never
been out of Perth before and I hated Canberra.”John stuck with this job for some time, also studying English and Political
Science part time at university, before heading back to Perth. “I saw a job
advertised for a clerk at Atwood Motors, Stirling Street, Perth,” says John.
“Atwood Motors was a car dealership and I got a job there as a clerk in the
panel shop. A few years later I was the General Manager of its used
vehicle operations.”It was the start of a long career in automotive dealership that has made John
Hughes one of the most respected dealers in Australia. Soon after landing the
job at Atwood Motors, John was offered a position elsewhere, but the
dealership made him a better offer to become a sales cadet. “I used to go into
the used-car manager’s showroom at lunch and sit in the Vanguards,John Hughes had humble beginnings in his professional
life. But through a combination of passion, discipline and
risk, his John Hughes Group has reached great heights.IMAGES DAVID BROADWAYA big deal