Virgin Australia Voyeur — May 2017

118 VIRGIN AUSTRALIAMAY 2017

PHOTOGRAPHY

ADINA WATCHES, LU

CAS ALLEN, YALUMBA

SOME FAMILY-RUN COMPANIES

take the idea of close collaboration

very seriously. “My siblings and

I all work out of the same open-

planoice,” says William Deague,

the seventh-generation CEO of the

newly renamed Deague Group,

which had been known as the Asian

Pacific Group since 1992. “And we

have a shared executive assistant

who sits in the middle of us.”

Not all families would be able

to work this way. But Deague says

he and his three siblings, Jonathan,

Anthony and Camilla, grew up in

an environment where the family

trade was always front of mind.

“On the weekends we’d drive

around to diferent sites and look

at opportunities,” Deague says. “I’d

spend my school holidays, from the

age of 13 or 14, on the golf courses that

my family had been redeveloping,

working in the maintenance division.

So we were learning from day one.”

(^5) DEAGUE GROUP
Today, William and Jonathan (who is managing director)
oversee day-to-day operations, while Camilla manages
Deague Group’s hotel business and Anthony looks after
zoning activities. Together, they’ve developed thousands
of apartments and built the Art Series Hotel Group chain
into one of Australia’s most lauded hospitality brands.
The quartet are currently busy planning the company’s
next stage, including the possible integration of the Art
Series Hotel Group brand into several new apartment
developments. “I think being given so much responsibility
early on has kept us enthused,” says Deague, who has
already begun to take his own young son to various
development sites on weekends to educate him.
And as they look forward, they also consciously look
back to where it began. “We’re proud of our strong family
roots in the building trade,” says Deague. “Our new name is
a nod to our ancestor’s achievements and cements a vision
for future generations to continue on the legacy.”
CLOCKWISE
FROM TOP Deague
Group chairman
David Deague (third
from let) looks on
as his sons discuss
business; Art Series
Hotel Group’s Larwill
Studio interior; The
Schaller Studio in
Bendigo, Victoria.
In 1867, immigrant WH Deague
founded a building firm in Melbourne
that’s operated under various guises
since. This year, the family decided to
put emphasis back on the family name
by rebranding as the Deague Group.