MCCONNELL BOURN - Key Persons
In 2015, Adele chose to apply her logistics and client services skills developed in International Executive Relocations to the Investment Property Management sector.
"I really enjoy providing what I feel is a ‘property concierge' service to our owners and our tenants" says Adele. "I'm told that I have a very calming and orderly way of managing day to day PM challenges. I think it's vital for both landlords and tenants to feel that they can totally rely on me.
"My colleagues and I are fully aware of the need to respond effectively and quickly to any issues that affect the successful leasing of a property. I know owners and tenants find it frustrating when some Property Management agencies fail to follow-up on their promises."
Adele is a reliable and diligent Property Investment Manager. She believes in developing solid professional client relationships from the outset, by providing honest and informed property advice to help her clients in all stages of their real estate journey. Adele is committed to achieving exceptional outcomes for our clients. She is highly organized, with fastidious attention to even the smallest detail.
When she's not at work, Adele can often be found taking her much loved Kelpie "Monty" for long walks. Adele has recently had two beautiful grandchildren come in to her life too, so life at the Mitchell residence is pretty full on!
We're delighted to have Adele as an important and valued member of our growing PM team.
Behind every successful McConnell Bourn property campaign is someone with a profound understanding of the integrated sales, marketing and management systems/processes that support our sales and management experts.
Alice Shen is our incredibly organised and highly efficient campaign coordinator - helping look after all property, agent and corporate marketing. Her knowledge, enthusiasm and diligence are strengths much valued by her colleagues.
Alice thinks laterally and logically. Her daily use of many of the leading-edge software packages used by Real Estate firms often leads to the provision of feedback that improves the functionality or power of software programs.
Her "Can -do" attitude, strong work ethic and willingness to achieve the best outcome frequently earns respect and admiration from everyone she works with.
When you're looking for a local, successful property sales agent, its crucial to remember the importance of fitness and teamwork. Andrew Egan is in the gym every morning doing CrossFit training. He spends an hour every day getting ready for the day ahead, 6 days a week. "That hour sets me up for the day, ensuring that my own personal performance is at its peak before I start work," says Andrew. "This enhances my sense of purpose and drive and energises my working relationships with my clients and the entire McConnell Bourn sales, marketing and negotiating support team."
Energy that fuels great results for Andrew's clients.
Andrew's naturally high energy levels help him achieve outstanding results, both at work and in sport. His clients often comment on his impressive work ethic and tireless commitment.
"There's so many parallels between my love of my work and my love of personal fitness," says Andrew. "Probably the most important and powerful thing is getting the maximum from being part of a really dedicated, focused and driven team."
Andrew Egan + Team Egan + McConnell Bourn = a really powerful Real Estate combination.
Job Titles:
- New Business & Leasing Manager
I'm often called the ‘McConnell Bourn Director of Tomorrow'. I'm fascinated and excited by the opportunities the Real Estate Industry faces as a result of developments in AR (Augmented Reality) and Ai (Artificial Intelligence).
Not everyone will be attracted to the introduction of new technology into our industry. However, I'm excited that McConnell Bourn have enthusiastically provided me with the opportunity to spend a considerable amount of my working month keeping an eye on technology developments that one day could be the foundation of a tech driven Real Estate and Property Management world.
Imagine buildings that self-survey, self-repair, self-alert and self-audit - just four examples of how technology might make lives even easier and enhance the real meaning of ‘Customer Service'.
The ‘COVID Economy' has already seen the need for humans to embrace new ways of doing things. It's a natural progression that we'll look to see how tech can help us provide our clients with industry leading property management.
Central to the way McConnell Bourn do business is the belief that we're not in the property business - we're actually in the people business.
"One of the most important aspects of representing MB is the fact that we're not a franchise," says Dan. "McConnell Bourn is a sophisticated, polished and impressive boutique agency designed to serve clients in an altogether more rewarding way."
Daniel Freidman is responsible for establishing and maintaining contact with existing and prospective clients. His energy, his knowledge and his natural desire to share impartial, unbiased, well-researched information make him a valuable asset - for our clients and our agency. He knows how to "read" the real estate market and pays close attention to driving trends (price, demand and supply, fiscal policy etc.
Dan is very ambitious. He's studious too. Very shortly he'll be awarded a Bachelor's degree in Property Economics.
Job Titles:
- Residential Sales Executive
It's often said that "people do business with people they like". In the case of this exuberant and popular Irishman, that probably means everyone he meets is drawn to his warm and appealing character.
Daragh has an infectious, magnetic personality.
He oozes charm, confidence, sincerity, and capability.
The energy and enthusiasm he brings to every listing opportunity creates a tsunami of confidence and awareness, internally and externally.
Daragh describes himself as being "naturally curious". He has a genuine interest in understanding the dynamics of the North Shore property market across a wide property price range.
His impressive career so far has given him substantial experience in Sales and Marketing, Professional Business Relationships and Business Development.
A vintage highlight of Daragh's career is the twenty years he spent in the wine business. He has visited almost every wine region in Australia, as well wineries in USA, France, Italy, Spain and NZ.
He has represented many of the world's prestigious Champagne houses including Moet, Bollinger and Mumm.
Daragh has a taste for premium and super premium wine brands. He's hosted numerous events at wineries, hosted winemakers at wine dinners and master classes.
Holly is living proof of the career advancement possibilities at McConnell Bourn.
Having spent years in our Business Development Unit where her lively personality coupled with with a positive "can-do attitude", made her a firm favourite with landlords and tenants alike, Holly has now moved over to the sales division of our agency where she is Executive Assistant to one of our directors and also to one of our high performing Partners.
Holly has had a life-long relationship with and obvious passion for The North Shore and her knowledge of the area is second to none. She is very hands-on, conversant across all aspects of the selling process and unshakable in her resolve to be seen as a valuable, energetic and committed member of the MB team. Being a mother to a young daughter, Holly understands just how desirable this family-friendly area is to live with it's beautiful parks and leafy streets. Wahroonga Park is a personal favourite spot to visit on weekends for Holly and her daughter.
A little over 10 years ago, Hugh's family decided to uproot from their native Stirling, Scotland and forge a new life in NSW. Hugh initially worked in the Hospitality industry where he gained valuable experience in systems, logistics and customer service. A chance conversation led to him being drawn to the world of Real Estate. He approached five real estate firms and disappointingly he only heard back from three. Out of those three potential companies, only one bothered to follow up Hugh's interest in joining their agency or showed interest in helping Hugh work out if a career in property might be right for him.
Hugh is now a much-valued addition to the McConnell Bourn team. He helps ensure frequent and timely communication with our clients, and has built a reputation for being a detailed, diligent, loyal, honest and efficient team member. He is driven, ambitious and has a very logical organised way of doing business.
Job Titles:
- Licensed Real Estate Agent
Efficient and friendly. Jayne was able to help us achieve an exchange of contracts and payment of the deposits within one day! Friendly and sociable.
Truthfully, I can't think of anything more exciting, dynamic or enjoyable than building and managing one of the most successful property agencies in the Ku-ring-gai area.
Before my wife Samantha and I were inspired to open our own North Shore property office, in 2000, I'd spent 8 years immersed in the intricacies of refined hospitality for a well-known International 5 Star Luxury Hotel Chain.
I've been able to apply much of what I learned at the luxury end of the hotel industry to the world of Real Estate. Ensuring our clients feel genuinely special, creating a welcoming, sophisticated and finessed experience and remembering that people are at the epicentre of everything we do - perhaps the most important lessons learned and applied.
These principals are at the heart of what has made McConnell Bourn such an excellent company with a strong brand, and which attracts some of the most talented and respected people in our industry today to be part of our success.
I never imagined the day I set foot in Australia that my life would soon become so rewarding and somewhere my wife and I would quickly call home.
It was summer 2000 and Sydney was staging the 2000 Olympics. The City was alive and thousands of people were out enjoying the wonderful show Sydney had staged for the world to see.
After a fast paced, senior management HR career in hospitality, specialising in training which had taken me to a long list of countries including UK, US and Singapore, we had chosen Sydney as somewhere we could enjoy stability as opposed to the uncertainty that hung over Hong Kong. My background was all about management of people, at all levels. After more than 20 years managing people I decided to apply my management skills to managing property.
So, 8 years ago I began learning all I could about the principals of Property Management. I soon found out that me and property were meant for each other.
Job Titles:
- Director of Marketing
- Founder
I've got three babies. My gorgeous son Bailey, my fabulous daughter Maddy and the business my amazing husband Matt and I gave birth to in 2000 - McConnell Bourn.
As anyone who knows me well will testify, I use every bit of my natural motherly skills to nurture and protect the McConnell Bourn brand. One thing is for sure though, I proudly guard and protect our outstanding reputation and our integrity with every last atom of energy I've got.
The Real Estate industry is made up of a mixed bag of people and agencies. When Matt and I opened our doors back in 2000, we were determined that McConnell Bourn was going to be a new breed of Real Estate firms. In fact, we didn't even want to use the term "Real Estate", preferring instead to be known as being "Property Marketers and Negotiators".
Our ambition and our dream was to diligently, year on year, build a truly personal, refined and tailored organisation that developed a reputation for embracing "absolute excellence" in everything we did. Industry work study trips to London, Paris, Milan, New York and a number of other European countries with an already sophisticated and established property market, helped us identify a number of new industry best practices and apply many of the better and clearly popular ways of doing business to our business.
You often hear how important it is for people to behave professionally at work. To most people, acting like a professional means working and behaving in such a way that others always think of them as competent, reliable and respectful - in every possible way and in any possible situation.
Others may interpret "professional" as having the knowledge, experience, integrity and determination to consistently carry out their role in an impeccable and impressive way.
Using either of these interpretations, Suzanne McConnell is by any measurement the epitome of a professional.
Over the past two decades, Suzanne has earned the respect and admiration of her colleagues, clients, suppliers and competitors.
More than seventy in every one hundred homes we sell are sold at a McConnell Bourn auction. And master of ceremonies at one of our lively, popular and hugely successful auctions is our very own Vic Lorusso, who is firmly established as one of Australia's leading real estate auctioneers, masterfully conducting thousands of auctions over the last 15 years.
Vic works exclusively as one of the McConnell Bourn sales and marketing team on Sydney's Upper North Shore. He plays a crucial role in achieving the best possible outcome and sale price on auction day and is responsible for teasing out quite literally tens of thousands of unexpected additional sale resulting dollars for vendors who chose McConnell bourn to market their property.
Vic is vibrant, vivacious and much valued - and has the most amazing energy. He has a quite unique ability to "read' and interpret the mood of assembled potential buyers, engaging them in a frenetic bidding session, inducing often outstanding results as his hammer falls on the successful final bid. Vic shares a thorough understanding of the North Shore market and everything the North Shore has to offer. Just like every member of our marketing and negotiating team, Vic knows the market inside out - a definite advantage when promoting the area and its attributes to the audience during the auction.
Vic brings his skills and expertise in the media and media management industry to every auction he conducts. He's also a traffic reporter for a number of Sydney radio stations and the TEN Network in Australia. He's also an ambassador for many charities regularly lending his talents to charity auctions for a range of worthy causes.