Philanthropy gives Ryde his ticket to business title
Ryde Building Company’s leading man Nigel Ryde was awarded business person of the year at the Albany Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s annual business awards dinner on Saturday night.
Mr Ryde was chosen for his outstanding achievements in the region based on criteria including leadership, professionalism, innovation, business achievements and social and environmental contributions.
The builder decided to start Ryde Building Company while laying paralysed in a Perth hospital.
“About nine years ago I was working with someone else and I ended up with food poisoning and paralysed in Perth,” he said.
“Through my rehab I thought I didn’t want to work for this person again, I wanted to start my own business.”
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The company started small, but today has a staff of 16 and Mr Ryde said he was “blown away” to be recognised for his business leadership.
“Someone asked if I could build them a house, I said ‘yeah I can build you a house’, then another person said‘can you build me a house? Give me a price,’ and then it just grew from there,” he said.
Ryde Building Company has donated up to $300,000 to the local community in the past year, including a charity home that raised $280,000 for the Albany Surf Life Saving Club.
Mr Ryde believes it was examples of philanthropy that were key contributors to his winning the award.
“Building that charity home was good fun,” he said.
“If I can help charity with bits and pieces, then I will. I don’t want to go to my grave with millions of dollars, so if I can use it around the community, then I will.”
Mr Ryde said his leadership qualities stemmed from a fierce competition with his twin brother.
“My dad was a business person and my twin brother is, so we always like to compete, even though he’s not in this town, we bounce off each other a bit,” he said.
“It’s something that’s in the back of your mind a bit — he’s a little bit more intelligent than me so I have to work harder to keep up.”
In the past 12 months, Mr Ryde said his biggest achievement was creating a stable staff base.
“I’ve got a group of staff that I think will die with me — I think that’s a big achievement,” he said.
