Getting by with a little help from my friend
Business powerhouses Katie Page and Bec Frizelle say being able to call on a trusted female confidante has been ‘incredibly important’ professionally, and personally
Katie is someone I can call any time for advice and support
BEC FRIZELLE
KATIE Page is apologising for the not-insignificant brown stain on her white pants. “That’s what you get for not wearing black … you immediately spill coffee on yourself,” she mutters. “Please don’t think any less of me.”
To be honest, it only adds to her appeal.
Sitting beside her at the beachfront Tower 28 cafe beneath Kurrawa Surf Life Saving Club is Bec Frizelle, sensibly clad all in black. “Look at me,” she says. “I look like I’m going to a funeral.”
Ah, female powerhouses … they’re just like us. Katie, also known as Katie Page Harvey, is CEO of retail giant Harvey Norman, co-owner of Magic Millions, promoter of women’s sport and a property developer. Bec is coowner of the Gold Coast Titans, a director of Sunland Group, group operations manager at James Frizelle’s Automotive Group and chief operating officer of Frizelle Prestige.
While their businesses may bear their husbands’ names, both women wear, or share, the pants – even if they are sometimes coffee stained.
Friends since, well, actually neither can remember quite when they first met, the pair’s relationship extends well beyond their business boundaries.
“We’re both very similar – strong, opinionated women who are married to fabulous husbands who adore us and have us on a pedestal,” says Katie, who has been married to Harvey Norman executive chairman Gerry Harvey for 30 years.
“It’s incredibly important to both of us to rely on each other. When you’re at this level it’s hard to find people you can trust and people who understand the concerns you have being a CEO and sitting on boards and leading global businesses.”
Bec, married to James Frizelle’s Automotive Group CEO Brett Frizelle since 1996, laughs.
“Well, you’re global … we’re local.”
Quite frankly, her modesty is as endearing as Katie’s pants shame.
In fact, Bec says Katie has been a mentor to her over their however-many-years friendship.
“I just know that Katie is someone I can call any time for advice and support,” says Bec.
“She gets it. Whether it’s family, relationships or business, she knows how it goes. And she really cares.
“Earlier this year I was really struggling with something and I told Katie about it, just giving voice to some of my concerns. The next day she rang me, saying she’d been thinking about it all night.
“We talked for two hours and it really helped clear my mind, seeing the issue from a different perspective. And you know with Katie that it’s in the vault.”
Katie says the benefits flow both ways, although she’s no fan of the M-word.
“Mentoring sounds so formal. What we have is friendship. Because we’re in business, sometimes we talk about that,” she says.
“We share so many experiences. You know, I was the first female on the NRL board and Bec was the first woman to chair an NRL club.
“We know each other’s families, it’s a huge comfort to have someone who truly knows you. Aside from your husband, obviously.”
Both Bec and Katie met their husbands in strikingly similar circumstances.
For Katie, she first met Gerry when he owned appliance chain Norman Ross and was involved in charity work for autistic children.
“I was in a – (she whispers) beauty pageant, to raise money for autistic children and I won it. That’s when we first met,” she says.
“Years later, I started working in Gerry’s first Harvey Norman store in Auburn. We were working seven days a week together and we had this mutual passion for the business. It was full on. That’s how it all began.”
For Bec, it was she who first began her career in the Frizelle family business, if only a fortnight before Brett.
“Brett and I were best friends but we never dated – not until two years later when I went to hand in my resignation to go to the US and he asked me out.
“We starting going out and we fell in love ... and I retracted my resignation.”
The similarities continue with the pair’s foray into motherhood.
Both recall wheeling babies into the office in an effort to balance business with parenthood.
“Oh God, I took two days off with each child before going back to work,” says Katie. “I do not recommend it.
“It’s one of the things I wished I did differently. But I really had no choice, Harvey Norman was expanding and I needed to be there.
“At one stage we had media buyers coming in and I would duck out between appointments to breastfeed. Good times.
“When the kids were little we used to just pack them into the Tarago and drive around looking for sites for Harvey Norman. We told them it was a holiday.”
Both Bec and Katie say it’s one of the reasons they’ve tried to make their workplaces a better place for women.
Bec says she and Brett try to create flexible conditions for new parents and actively seek female employees, running gender-specific campaigns – and with good reason.
She says the Frizelle Sunshine Automotive Group has been tracking the performance of its sales team for the past two years, with women outperforming the men.
Its 26-strong female sales team, on average, outsold the 74 male staff by about $200 a week or $10,000 gross a year for their commissions.
Bec says the Harvey Norman Women of the Year campaign – for which both she and Katie are judges and their businesses are sponsors – is a fantastic opportunity to shine a light on the females behind the city’s success.
“You know, I feel a little embarrassed being a judge. I may be a name but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t dozens of women helping me – and men, as well,” she says.
For Katie, promoting women is simply what she was taught, literally.
She says her alma mater, Brisbane State High, fostered confidence and ambition in its female cohort.
“It was a co-ed school but back in the 70s when I was there, the sexes were segregated,” she says.
“The girls were really taught to believe in themselves and to apply for any job they wanted. It was in the days of the second wave of feminism and that school got it so right. We learned to be strong, independent women.
“Unfortunately, when I left school I soon discovered that the rest of the world was not quite as progressive as Brisbane State High.”
In fact, Katie originally applied to become a surveyor, only to find the Queensland Government would not take female surveyors.
It’s one of the many reasons she is not afraid of the F-word.
“I am a feminist. Of course I am. Why wouldn’t you be?” she says.
“Gerry is too. Although I’m not sure he’d actually use the word ‘feminist’. Certainly he is a huge supporter of women.”
While Harvey Norman has fielded criticism for the lack of female representation on its own board, Katie says her focus is on ensuring women run divisions and companies, not just sit on boards.
“There is a concentration on getting women on to boards. That’s great, but what about women running companies?’’ she says.
“I know a lot of women that don’t want to sit on boards, they want to run the companies and make the decisions. If you’re sitting on a board you’re setting strategies, you’re not operational, and you’re not running the business. I’d like to see a lot more effort put into getting women further up the ranks.”
It’s part of the ethos that inspired Katie to introduce the Magic Millions Racing Women initiative.
To promote greater gender equality in the sport, the world’s first women’s-only incentive bonus sees a $500,000 cash bonus distributed between the top four all-female owned or leased horses in finishing order of the two-year-old classic.
Introduced in 2013, the initiative has garnered a high profile roster of female equestrian supporters, including champion
I am a feminist. Of course I am. Why wouldn’t you be? KATIE PAGE
Australian showjumper Edwina Tops-Alexander and the Queen’s granddaughter and 2012 Olympic equestrian silver medal winner Zara Phillips, who is its patron.
Katie says the initiative is aimed at encouraging more women to become owners, trainers and generally involved with racing – and has succeeded.
Similarly, she introduced the NRL’s Women in League in 2005, and in 2015 announced Harvey Norman’s sponsorship of the Auburn Giants, a mostly female, Muslim AFL team. That same year, the company also sponsored an all-female racecar driving team at Bathurst.
“There’s been surprisingly little opposition to any of these initiatives and sponsorships. Women deserve a seat at the table, whether it’s in sport or business,” she says.
“With the Magic Millions Racing Women initiative, it just made sense. Within hours of it being announced, trainers told me they were fielding floods of inquiries from women.”
In fact listening to Katie, Bec has a gleam in her eye.
She says while she’s owned a few horses in the past, she’s thinking the time might be right to get back in the field.
And she knows just the woman to help a sister out.
“We’ll talk about it in January,” laughs Katie. “I love coming here for Magic Millions. The Gold Coast is so special to us. It’s our happy place.
“We have our place in Main Beach (the penthouse of M3565, which Katie developed), fabulous friends and amazing weather.
“Some people say it’s too hot here in January but if you dress appropriately, it’s fine.”
Just maybe don’t wear white pants.