Business: NIEVES MURRAY, IRT chief executive
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Not only is Nieves Murray a successful businesswoman and head of one of the region’s big employers, she also has heart.
Named this year’s Illawarra Business Person of the Year, the seniors care and lifestyle provider emphasised how it had been a year of growth, change and unparalleled reforms in the sector.
Murray described the IRT Group’s overall financial performance as strong. Its revenue in services was up 10.9per cent to $10.7million and its EBITDA was up 53per cent to $4.4million. There was also a 17per cent return on assets.
More than that, she drove the CEO Sleepout, which raised over $83,500 for the homeless on its first attempt, compared to $50,000 in Sydney’s first effort.
‘‘At the CEO Sleepout I was getting a fair bit of pressure from my colleagues about the fact that Wollongong needed some really good news stories and some good role models,’’ Murray said.
‘‘I have always felt success is not about gender, it is about a good team of people. At IRT that is what we have got.’’
Although she shuns the publicity, Murray also finds time in her busy schedule to volunteer as a Lifeline counsellor.
‘‘It is not something I publicise,’’ she said.
‘‘It is just something I do because it is what I want to do.
‘‘It doesn’t matter what position you hold in society or in a job, at the end of the day we are all people.
‘‘And that for me is an equaliser because people help people no matter what situation they are in.’’