BBC is privileged to work with numerous Old Collegians who have returned to the College in a variety of different capacities to strengthen and improve our school for generations to come. We caught up with three such Old Boys: Mr Don O’Rorke (OC 1977), Chairman of Consolidated Properties Group and Chair of the BBC Advisory Council; Mr Peter Bolton Hall (OC 1976), an experienced property consultant who advises the College; and Mr Steve Wintraaken (OC 1996), who lends us his expertise from 18 years of project management experience with Blades Project Services. During a lengthy chat in College House, these gentlemen discussed the Master Plan Campus Vision and offered some insights from their years spent on the BBC campus.
BBC: What about the College is important to you? What were your experiences like when you were here as students, and what did you take away from your time here?
DO: So, as a kid from the bush, I was born up in Esk. Coming down to the city as a boarder was a complete change of life. BBC really introduced me to the city, and the connections I’ve made from those schoolboy days continue to resonate throughout my personal life and work life. For instance, Peter was a year ahead of me. He was one of four best friends, who are all names you probably recognise: Scott Hutchinson of Hutchinson Builders, whom I’ve worked with many times since, and David Colenso and Peter McLeod, both of whom went on to become successful solicitors in the city. So I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to enter those circles were it not for BBC. I’ve got five boys, all of whom have been through boarding at BBC. I still have two boys at BBC, and for the last couple of years, I’ve been the Chair of the Council. So, the BBC thread continues to weave through my life.
PBH: I welcomed the opportunity to come back and bring my commercial property expertise to assist the school with part of its Master Plan. I don’t think I ever went into this house when I was here as a student. I think it was the Headmaster’s quarters then. So if I’d come in here when I was at school, I would’ve been in a lot of trouble. But it’s just so good to be back at the College. I consider any assistance I can provide a privilege.
SW: I had a great time at school. I’ve got 30 or 40 close friends to this day from BBC. I enjoy coming back to the College and helping out in a variety of ways, whether it’s through construction or just advice and knowledge. It’s like a family now. As Old Boys, we’re proud of what the school is. We want it to be the best. And it’s like anything you’re a part of, whether it’s a sporting team or business, you want to strive to be the best. And there have been some amazing things in the works recently. I’ve got a son who’s in Year 12 now, finishing up. He’s done amazingly well, and the College has provided him with opportunities similar to the ones it provided me.
BBC: A strong part of BBC is that sense of community and how it lasts after you’ve graduated. What do you think it is about this place that has that kind of staying power?
DO: It is very much a cradle-to-legacy approach to the school. Now, where does that come from? It comes from the teachers, it comes from the Old Boys, it comes from the students, and it comes from the sporting coaches. All of those people together imbue this sense of community that lasts both during your time at BBC and throughout your life as well. So, there is this sense of belonging. There’s always a community you can engage with. As Steve said, everyone is enormously proud of the College, and everyone wants to assist in some way in the College’s progression. Thus, we’ve seen Peter coming back and bringing his skills to assist the College with a whole bunch of property initiatives. Steve is doing a fantastic job building new buildings here, as well as on the other campuses the PMSA has. But there is something that happens – the alchemy of the place – that makes you want to come back and be part of it. It’s the magic of BBC.
PBH: Yeah, I’ll just add to that. I think that social interaction is really important for people. And BBC is very good at engaging with the Old Boys and bringing us all together. Speaking of cradle to legacy, I was chatting with Steve the other day, and I mentioned what it was like when the BBC Rowing Shed got washed away in the ’74 floods, and he said he wasn’t even born then.
DO: [laughs] He’s just making us feel old, Pete.
PBH: BBC is also about family for me. Both my uncles Tom and Vic French were Old Boys here, and they still turn up to the Old Boys events. And Vic and Tom’s sons – my cousins Bruce, David, and Stuart – are also BBC Old Boys. So, it’s quite a family thing for me, and we remain committed to the school throughout the family. My uncles and cousins still talk very fondly of the school, not dissimilar to the way we do.
SW: I think from a construction point of view, what I’ve been involved in is delivering a lot of projects, whether it’s the Prototype Classrooms or the cricket nets. I might just see generations of future Wintraakens continue to come through here. The family tradition continues on for everyone.
DO: It’s very personal for Steve, too, because you can say to your son and his children, “I built that building, I built that building, I built that building.” He’s personally made a huge difference to the physical campus.
BBC: With the Master Plan Campus Vision and the building out of the campus we have scheduled, how do you see that affecting the College in the future?
DO: I suppose the first thing to say is that the College is and needs to be a dynamic place. The academic programs have changed to reflect what society and business need from people who graduate. And also in the physical sense. These aren’t set-and-forget assets. They need to be maintained. The campus needs to have new buildings built. Then, the programs that run through those buildings need to evolve as well. And that’s very much witnessed in what’s happening at the College right now. Under Andre Casson, business planning is first class. He’s enacted the new Strategic Plan. The logical thing to follow from that is the Master Plan Campus Vision. It’s really heartening to see that the College isn’t resting on its laurels or treading water. It’s very much got its eye on the horizon and how we get there.
PBH: There’s a lot of passion about the College from the staff of BBC, and this clearly flows through to the students as well as all the other stakeholders involved with the school. I think what helps support this passion is a good balance between short-term and long-term objectives. Whilst ensuring that everything fits financially and meets the needs of the school and the students in the short term, what’s refreshing for me is there’s a good long-term perspective as well. And I think that’s very healthy for a sustainable future.
DO: It’d be fair to say that’s been under Andre’s vision.
SW: Yes.
BBC: You’ve already broached this in some ways, but the campus is quite different from the one you experienced when you were here as students. What do you think those changes and additions over the years have added to the campus, and how do you see that fulfilling BBC’s function of remaining at the cutting edge of boys’ education?
DO: At its simplest, when Peter and I were here, the school was 700 kids. It’s now double the size. So what that says to me is that the school has adapted and grown to match its potential, and now the job of the Master Plan Campus Vision is to lay out the pathway for the next phase of growth through the school. And that’ll need to reflect the differing needs of the kids today versus when we were here last century. And I think it’s really pleasing that the school has got really good professionals to provide a vision of what the campus could look like in another 25 years time. So I look forward, hopefully, at 63, to be able to see the next 25 years.
PBH: [laughs] Hear, hear. I’m also looking forward to seeing what happens here over the next 25 years.
DO: But the ability to adapt and then the ability to execute is important, and I think BBC can do both those things well. I think it’s important to say, too, that the Master Plan process has been a really disciplined, well-conceived, and thought-out process. It’s been a data-driven process. It looks at what the income will be and what the needs are. It looks at what the costs are. It looks at the construction times. So this Master Plan Campus Vision is particularly good because it’s been data-driven and it’s disciplined and it’s rational. It’s been financially modelled.
BBC: Just one more question. You’ve talked about seeing where the Master Plan Campus Vision has taken the College once it’s been completed. Is there something that you think will be the legacy of this current period of BBC when people think back on it?
SW: I don’t think it’s any one particular project. Master Plans are live environments, and the world changes all the time. But delivering a Master Plan that the community is proud of will be an important legacy. And we want to help the school deliver those projects in all different types of ways so that they continue to support the school in becoming bigger and better.
PBH: In my experience, successful master plans need buy-in and commitment from all key stakeholders. The quality of the current leadership and the passion of the College and management, I think, will be remembered and seen as a key reason why the Master Plan Campus Vision was such a great success.
DO: I think people will look back at this period in the school’s history and they’ll see an enormous amount of positive activity. People will look back and see that during Andre Casson’s time as Headmaster, a brave and exciting plan was formulated and actually executed on. And what we’ll see are a whole bunch of the outcomes of that cross buildings, programs, and the approach to the business of running a school. We’ll see that this was a significant inflection moment in BBC’s history.