At his 21st birthday, Crystalbrook chief executive Geoff York was doing something unusual—he was serving other people food and drinks.
But that wasn’t the unusual part of his landmark birthday—York was living and working in South Africa, earning a whopping 30 rand (about A$3) a month to gain invaluable work experience for his catering and hotel management degree back in Victoria.
“I was keen to see the world. I had read a lot of Wilbur Smith books and thought Africa looked interesting.” York said.
“So, I wrote to the Southern Suns Hotel group in South Africa seeking an opportunity. They wrote back and away I went.
“It was probably the best experience of my life. They were a big hotel group and I moved all around, working in Johannesburg, Eastern Transvaal (Mpumalanga) and Durban among other cities.
“They were a progressive hotel group and I learned a lot. More importantly, it confirmed to me that I wanted to be in the hospitality sector.”
It was the late 1970s when York made his decision to travel to South Africa, a time before the internet, and the 24-7 TV and radio news cycle, so York made his decision based on what we would consider today to be limited information.
“I think life is all about gaining new experiences and that certainly gave me the impetus to work in an industry where that option was always going to be available,” York said.
