Enjoying financial success
FROM HUMBLE ORIGINS INSURANCE BROKER JOE VELLA HAS COME A LONG WAY IN BUSINESS, THANKS TO A TIRELESS WORK ETHIC AND STRONG DESIRE TO ASSIST, NOT JUST HIS CLIENTS, BUT THE COMMUNITY, WRITES HAYDEN SMITH
A local trailblazer was once told he wouldn’t amount to much. Today the insurance firm of Joe Vella (above) employs 35 people.
A FAR North insurance trailblazer was once told by a teacher he wouldn’t amount to much.
Joe Vella can easily laugh at the moment now, but a candid Year 10 parent-teacher interview could easily have sent his life down a totally different path.
“Dad was in his overalls and mum was looking at the teacher, hoping to hear that her son was doing well at school,” Mr Vella said.
“Instead she was told I shouldn’t do years 11 and 12.”
Now Joe Vella Insurance Brokers (JVIB) employs 35 people across sites in Cairns, Atherton and Mareeba.
Outside his role as JVIB managing director Mr Vella is involved with six charity organisations.
A thirst for success has always driven Mr Vella, who had a working-class upbringing in the North Melbourne suburb of Fawkner.
He was born in Malta, a tiny European island country, before his family migrated to Australia in January 1961.
“It was a good childhood but wogs were wogs and migrants were migrants,” Mr Vella said.
“Being quite robust in appearance, and having a glass eye, I copped a bit of name calling, but would just shrug it off.”
With both his parents being illiterate, he started learning Maltese at age 12 in order to help his dad run a cleaning and security business.
“I was deciphering contracts, doing invoices and responding to mail for both home and work,” Mr Vella said.
Encouraged by his mum, he decided to complete years 11 and 12.
After a short stint at teachers’ college he “fell into a job” with Robinson Insurance Services, which is now Arthur J. Gallagher and one of the world’s largest insurance broking companies.
“I was 17 and the third employee of what was to become Australia’s largest insurance brokerage,” Mr Vella said.
“My induction was effec- tively to just ‘go out and get them son’.”
Robinson Insurance Services became OAMPS and in 1987 Mr Vella opened a Cairns branch on the corner of Severin St and Mulgrave Rd.
He then had a brief stint in the US before eventually returning to Cairns, where he opened JVIB in 1995.
“At first I was working from my daughter’s bedroom at our home on Currawong St in Bayview Heights,” Mr Vella said.
“I started fresh and really just couldn’t afford to be too choosy, because there was
JOE VELLA ONCE WORKED FROM HIS DAUGHTER’S BEDROOM. NOW HIS BUSINESS HAS OFFICES IN CAIRNS, MAREEBA AND ATHERTON
no income coming in.”
The past two decades have brought continuous growth for his business, which now has a client base of more than 6000.
JVIB opened a Mareeba office in 2004, which was followed by an Atherton site two years later.
“I stand for dedication and knowing our client has got the best out of our product,” Mr Vella said.
“I feel we go beyond what is expected, which is in our DNA.”
Mr Vella said the most challenging part of his work was finding a good balance be- tween clients’ needs and what they could afford.
JVIB moved to its stylish Mulgrave Rd office in December 2008, when the global financial crisis loomed large.
Mr Vella said the GFC had been a “daunting time” for his company.
“The GFC was the undoing of some longstanding entities, and in many cases the peril had been not necessarily self-inflicted,” he said.
“But our business did well; we were presented with a difficult situation and decided to roll up our sleeves.”
Unlike many Far North ventures, JVIB went through the financial crisis unscathed.
Outside of his burgeoning business Mr Vella is the longstanding Make-A-Wish Foundation North Queensland chairman.
“The reward is knowing you are helping take away the child’s focus from their extreme and often life-threatening condition,” he said.
“This week I met a young girl called Chloe from Brisbane who wanted to come to the Great Barrier Reef and learn underwater photography.”
Mr Vella has a wife, Maryanne, and two adult daughters, Natalie and Renee.
He is also a car enthusiast, boasting an impressive Porsche collection.
“I don’t spend much time reflecting, but keep going forward in whatever I want to do,” he said. “I live at 100 miles per hour. It’s all or nothing.”
I STAND FOR DEDICATION AND KNOWING OUR CLIENT HAS GOT THE BEST OUT OF OUR PRODUCT JOE VELLA