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Walter H Sommer is the Founder and executive Chairman of Sommer & Staff Constructions Pty Ltd. His natural organising and management talents brought him from the hardships of a fourteen year old apprentice mason in post-war Germany, via a carpentry apprenticeship in Sydney where his master made him joinery workshop |
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foreman, to becoming foreman of a million dollar maintenance workshop and office project in Pyrmont, all by age 21. Walter went on to work in a number of executive positions, initially as a site manager, then as Operations Manager (NSW) for a national project builder, before his appointment as General Superintendent for the construction of the township of Gove in the Northern Territory. Some three years of this period of learning the business of building was spent in Bougainville with the New Guinea Biological Foundation where he was responsible for the construction of a range of housing and industrial buildings.
In 1974, at the age of thirty-three, Walter was ready to become his own master and established Sommer & Staff with four of his colleagues.
Walter Sommer invests his time in people. He is a trustee of the Queensland Master Builders Association and Chairman of BIGA (Building Industry Group Apprenticeship Training).
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Walter Sommer and his colleagues were looking from the outset for innovative ways to make their business succeed. They realised that the housing market was too subject to the vagaries of the economy and expanded their horizons. No job was considered too difficult but was regarded instead as a challenge to test their management mettle. Their first project was completion of the abattoirs at Cannon Hill. Other tenders were won in places like the Torres Strait, Aurukun, Whitsunday Islands, the Bowen Basin, and Kingaroy. Their first major healthcare contracts were successfully completed in the main building of the Princess Alexandra hospital. The establishment and maintenance of close working relationships with design teams, clients and user groups with a view to minimizing disruption to normal operations, demonstrated early maturity and sophisticated management ability.
The high standard of the firm's workmanship soon became the benchmark for others to meet. The continuing outstanding standard of its products has been recognised throughout the industry and with numerous Quality Awards.
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The board and executive officers of Sommer & Staff are building industry specialists with more than a century's experience between them. |
| Walter Sommer |
Executive Chairman |
| Dan Burley |
Marketing & Procurement Manager |
| Michael Conway |
Construction Manager |
| Brian Ryan |
Operations Manager |
| Graham Turbutt |
Company Secretary & Financial Controller |
| The measure of Sommer & Staff's well deserved success is in direct proportion to the measure of its commitment to its clients and the industry. |
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