ALIGNING FAMILY INTERESTS AND BUSINESS STRUCTURE FOR GENERATIONAL SUCCESS

Parallel Session

Speakers: Steve Thacker, Ashley Thacker and Tim Van Dyke

Facilitator: Angus Kennard

Date and time: Friday 23 May 2025, 12:15pm - 1:00pm

SESSION OVERVIEW

What begins as a simple business can quickly become more complex as second-generation family members join, each bringing their own aspirations and needs. With the next generation often seeking to elevate the business—or even pursue their own side ventures—additional layers of complexity emerge.

But how do you align family interests with a solid business structure that supports both personal goals and the long-term success of the enterprise?

Ranger is a second-generation family business specialising in providing expert lifting, rigging, and safety solutions to clients in the mining, civil, construction, rail, and government sectors.

Founded by Steve Thacker and his former business partner, the business—now known as Ranger—is currently operated by Steve’s son Ashley, and his son-in-law Tim, with Steve and his wife Verity serving as shareholders and sitting on the company board.

In this session, we will hear from Steve, Ashley, and Tim about how they navigated their succession process and aligned their business structure for greater effectiveness. They will share the value of professionalising the business and establishing strong governance practices to ensure the longevity and success of their family business.

SPEAKERs

Steve Thacker
Managing Director and Founder, Ranger


Ashley Thacker
Managing Director, Ranger 

Ashley is a lifting equipment expert with great passion for the industry; and a determination to positively impact the way the world uses new technologies and components to lift materials and people.

Knowledgeable in all facets of the lifting, rigging and safety industry, Ashley takes every opportunity to complete every course or training program to further his knowledge into all specialized fields of the industry; and thrives on coming up with technical solutions for clients. Ashley was the youngest ever board member and first international board member of a global lifting authority—the Lifting Equipment Engineers Association (LEEA founded in 1944 in Great Britain) - and is the Technical Sales Director of Ranger. Ashley is about to start work with the Australian Standards committee for Lifting Equipment.

In an industry of dying knowledge, Ashley brings youth, experience and passion. Ashley has operated in all roles within Ranger from factory floor, onsite inspection and testing, sales, training, administration, management and leadership. As an industry innovator Ashley is the driving force behind many of Ranger’s capabilities that set it apart from the rest of the industry. 

Tim Van Dyke
NSW State Manager, Ranger 

Tim is an experienced Manager having worked within the construction, entertainment and lifting industry since 2003.

He originally joined the Ranger team in 2013 as an Account Manager, before running his own dynamic electrical contracting company. He returned to Ranger as the NSW State Manager in January 2021 where he leads all NSW operations.

Tim is familiar with all areas of Ranger’s business processes from daily inspections and warehouse deliveries to recruitment and senior management tasks. Having run his own business, he understands challenges and complexities many clients face and is determined to deliver quality services from the get-go. He is renowned for creating a community culture within the company where everyone gets stuck in to achieve results.

Tim has worked on some of the largest infrastructure projects in Sydney including WestConnex, NorthConnex and M4- M5.

In addition to his role as NSW State Manager, Tim also sits on the Ranger Board as a Company Director.

facilitator

Angus Kennard
Co-founder and Co-CEO, Inauro

Angus Kennard over the last 24 years has been a key driver in the rapid growth and development of his 3rd generation family business Kennards Hire. Kennards started in Bathurst in 1948 and has now around 185 branches and 1700 people across Australia and New Zealand. As CEO he has passionately led the business and prioritised the importance of people and culture as key drivers of engagement and performance for Kennards. For this, he became recognised in Great Place to Work as 7th best employer in Australia and 6th in New Zealand.

Angus has been a passionate innovator and entrepreneur starting the Concrete Care specialist business within the Kennards group of which specialist businesses now account for around a 3rd of total revenue. He transformed, through digitisation, the business with the implementation of Easytrak™ telemetry platform. His entrepreneurial spirit of his grandfather continues, as a start-up into his new venture, Inauro.

Angus has been in an FBA forum group for nearly 20 years and is a passionate supporter of families in business. He is a keen rally driver, a GAICD, holds a B.Bus, an EMBA from the University of Sydney and won EY Entrepreneur Of The Year in 2019 in the Sustained Excellence category. 

all sessions

Explore all the sessions on offer at this year’s Family Business Conference: Asia-Pacific. Each session has been thoughtfully crafted to provide you with real-world tools and takeaways for navigating change in the world of family business. Featuring a range of expert keynote presentations, family business stories, interactive workshops and parallel sessions, every session is designed to equip you with strategies to navigate current challenges, embrace future opportunities, and achieve sustained success for your family business.

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