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Paul Brown
• When the big Australian freight group. Thomas Nationwide Transport, decided to set up its Kwikasair subsidiary in Britain to run a London-Paris express service, it sent Paul Brown as general manager to establish the business. He arrived in Britain on June 11 and is scheduled to have the company fully operational by October 1.
Paul Brown is no stranger to setting up new establishments. He has been meeting and overcoming the problems which attend such operations since 1964. It was then he began to build up TNT's overnight terminal network in Australia.
During the past six weeks he has settled the administration of the British company. contacted a number of potential customers, both here and in France, selected a terminal in London, researched the parcels market and the opposition and established contacts with the trade unions and the press. At first sight his achievement might be attributed to the "whiz-kidtype of executive. This is not Paul Brown.
During the war he was a leading seaman writer in the Royal Australian Navy and at 49 he still uses much of his early training in his business life. Internal memos are passed in the cryptic language of the service. Communication with outsiders is brief, to the point, but always polite. Crisis is a word which has no place in his vocabulary. His methodical and detailed planning ensures that none Occurs.
His relationship with his staff has the navyman's mark. Discipline is relaxed but nonetheless present and all are on first name terms with each other and with the g.m.
It is not without significance that Paul Brown arrived from Australia with a letter of introduction and high commendation from the Transport Workers' Union of Australia to the Transport and General Workers' Union in Britain.
Before he joined TNT in 1964 he developed his managerial skills on a sheep station in the Australian outback, then with a small haulage company and for three years he was self-employed as a salesman. His temporary home in London's Kensington is the 12th which he and his family have occupied in 25 years. His wife, Joy, daughter Vivienne, sons Nigel . and Stephen apparently find "settling-in" as easy as Paul does. His one hobby, as might be expected of an ex-matelot, is sailing and he intends to make time for it before returning to Australia in 1975. I.S.