THE FOUNDERS
and their QF Journeys
Brian W Wild (QF 1954 – 1991)
Brian joined Qantas in Dec 1954 as a Statistics Clerk in the Finance Branch. Between 1954 and 1970 he held various positions in the Economics Division including: Assistant to Economics Officer - Research; Assistant to Economics Officer - Planning; and Economics Officer Revenue - Pools.
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In 1971 he was selected for the Management Development Programme and moved to the Commercial Branch as Market Planning Manager and this was followed by Route Planning Manager.
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By 1974 Brian became Regional Director Orient based in Hong Kong and 4 years later returned to Sydney to become Western Routes Director followed by Regional Director NSW and ACT. (It was during this period the “Smuggler” incident took place as described in Jim Eames book The Flying Kangaroo.)
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In 1982 Brian was appointed as Director of Sales and Field Services, a position he held for seven years.
In 1989 he became Director of Sales Australia for a short period of time before finally becoming General Manager Passenger Services in the same year, a position he held until his retirement in June 1991.
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Shortly after his retirement, Brian took on the position of General Manager Australia for Continental Airlines, and by 1993, he had moved to Ansett where he was contracted by Ansett International to assist in setting up their operations in Asia and Japan.
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In 1995 he joined the Consolidated Travel Group of Companies as Director of Business Development, responsible for the strategic direction of the group and the development of new business. Between 1996 and 2003 he was on the AFTA Board and in 1999 elected to the Travel Agents International Board of UFTA. In 2003 Brian was appointed Executive Chairman of the public listed entity, Jetset-Travelworld. Brian retired as Chairman in 2006, but remained as Senior Advisor to the CEO of the Consolidated Group before finally retiring from all activities in 2014.
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He now spend his time cruising with his wife Joy, golfing and enjoying the company of his 2 married children Mitchell, Megan and 4 adult grandchildren, and all those involved in the Red Tail Road to 100.
Jim Eames (QF 1975 – 1984 & 1985 - 1994)
Jim Eames joined Qantas in 1975 as Chief Press Officer after a career in major metropolitan newspapers as police reporter and aviation writer. He subsequently served as press secretary to the Minister for Civil Aviation in the Gorton government and aviation adviser to the Minister for Transport in the Whitlam government.
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Leaving Qantas briefly in the 1984 he established a public relations company handling Airbus Industrie and British Aerospace.
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He re-joined Qantas in late 1985 as Director of Public Affairs before retiring in 1994 into the role of consultant to Qantas for the airline’s 75th Anniversary celebration.
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Since then he acted as consultant to Air Niugini and was Media Director for the Centenary of Federation London/Sydney Air Race 2001.
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Since retirement he has written eight books, two of them recently launched, The Flying Kangaroo and Courage in the Skies about Qantas.
Max Hill (QF 1963 – 1995)
Max joined Qantas in the golden era of the 1960’s as a Junior Commercial Trainee. His career span a total of 42 years with assignments in Australia, USA and New Zealand. Max was foremost in the Cargo where he held a Directorship in the Qantas subsidiary Australian Air Express. He also had a number of years in the Passenger side between 1987 and 1991 with postings in Adelaide and Auckland.
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1963 - Joined Qantas as a Junior Commercial Trainee
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1964 - Clerk in Cargo Development
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1970 - Cargo Sales Representative NSW
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1978 - Cargo Sales Manager Central USA & Mexico based in Chicago,
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1979 - along with Frank Nerli and Vicki Genis, won Sales Region of The Americas Award
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1980 - Cargo Sales Manager NSW & then Cargo Manager NSW
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1987 - Transferred to passenger side of QF as Manager Sth Australia, based in Adelaide
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Appointed Director, Adelaide Convention & Visitors Bureau.
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Under his leadership, South Australia won the Australian Region of the Year Award in 1989.
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1989 - Manager NZ based in Auckland.
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1991 - Freight Sales and Services Director, and re-titled to General Manager Freight Sales & Marketing based in Sydney.
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Directorships in Australia Air Express (JV between QF & Australia Post) and Jupiter Air Oceania, a wholesale courier company (JV between QF & Japan Airlines)
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1995 - Departed Qantas
After a short sabbatical, Max joined Ogden Aviation (subsequently became Menzies Aviation) in 1998 as Manager Cargo Services Asia/Pacific, based in Macau, SAR, China. In 2002 he took on an interim CEO role at China Great Wall Transportation based in Beijing and in 2007 Max became the CEO for Hyderabad Menzies Air Cargo Ltd based in Hyderabad, India.
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Max remains active with a number of consultancy projects in Sydney, but mostly enjoying semi-retirement, reconnecting with former Qantas colleagues and a daily 1km swim that gets his day off to a good start.
Rafael Toda (QF 1979 – 1996)
Rafael stated his career with Qantas in Adelaide as a Reservations Sales Agent. He remained in the Passenger Sales side of the company until the 1993 merger of Qantas and Australian Airlines, when he was seconded for a number of roles at Australian Resorts, the company’s TN inherited resorts division which included iconic island properties Great Keppel, Brampton, Dunk, Bedarra and Lizard.
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1979 - Reservations Sales Agent – Adelaide, South Australia
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1980 - Passenger Sales Agent - Adelaide Ticket Office, South Australia
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1982 - Passenger Sales Relief Supervisor – South Australia Travel Centres
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1983 - Passenger Sales Supervisor – Salisbury, South Australia
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1985 - Travel Centre Manager – Gold Coast, Queensland
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1988 - Account Manager South America – Sydney, New South Wales
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1991 - Sales Manager Southern Queensland – Gold Coast, Queensland
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1993 - National Sales and Product Manager – Qantas, Australian Resorts – Brisbane, Queensland
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1994 - Director of Sales and Marketing – Qantas, Australian Resorts – Brisbane, Australia
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1996 - Resigned from Qantas
On departing Qantas in 1996, Rafael established a strategy consultancy practice and has had a number of blue-chip clients including OzEmail, American Express Foreign Exchange, BMW Group Australia (MINI Cooper), Titans NRL Football Club, Accor Vacation Club, Cycling Australia, and V8 Supercars. Always seeking the cutting edge of technology and innovation, Rafael was also the lead consultant for Local Motors, an American electric vehicle manufacturer that manufactured driverless shuttles using 3D printing processes. Rafael was responsible for markets in Australia, New Zealand and the Asia Pac region. Today his consultancy specialises in electric rapid transport systems, ride sharing models and light to medium logistic applications for air and road based delivery solutions. Rafael is a Co-founder and Chairman of Red Tail 081, and a Director of its Charity arm RUonQ. He is also a Director and Company Treasurer of Go Gridless Philippines, a renewable energy company, and the Queensland Vice President of the Australia Philippine Business Council. He enjoys travelling, networking with likeminded individuals, a good game of racquetball and on rare occasions, a round of golf.