30.06.2015

Phil Newby retires

Phil Newby, executive director of Australia’s Elevating Work Platform Association for almost 17 years and chief executive of the Hire and Rental Industry Association since 1999, is retiring today, following a 45 year career in the access and equipment market.
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Phil Newby

Newby was born in the UK and after attending Portsmouth University started his career in 1970 as a management trainee with GKN, at the time a major international scaffold company with its headquarters in the UK. In 1974 he became a branch manager at the company’s Australian subsidiary, GKN Australia, working in both Sydney and Canberra.

In 1976 he moved back to the UK, where he joined Stephens & Carter - by then part of the BET group – as a contract project manager. He was promoted to Branch manager and then in 1979 he became national manager. In 1982 it was back to Australia to join Instant Scaffolds in Sydney as National manager. The company was the Australian licensee for UpRight’s Instant scaffold systems, and distributor for its powered access products. It was owned by WR Carpenter, a conglomerate controlled by financier Rick Stowe.

Newby and the success of Instant Scaffolds Australia played a role in the acquisition of UpRight by Stowe in 1987. Following the takeover Newby was made general manager of Instant Scaffolds Australia and New Zealand. This was a position he held until 1994 when he left to join the Wreckair division of Brambles as state manager.

In 1997 he moved to Safe Access as managing director, but just a year or so later joined the Elevating Work Platform Association of Australia (EWPAA) which had merged with the Hire Rental Industry Association in 1994, but in 1998, it was re-established as a separate entity, with Newby as its first executive director. It remained affiliated with the HRIAA- sharing offices and staff etc.. but then in 1999 Newby also became chief executive of the HRIAA as well retaining his position at the EWPA.

In the following years he helped build the EWPA into one of the most dynamic access associations in the world, expanding its yellow card training programme into a truly national proof of training for aerial work platforms users, and creating an influential organisation within the industry. He and the association have also played a major role in improving best practice and shaped legislation More recently he oversaw the creation of the Telescopic Handler Association of Australia initially as a division of the EWPA.

From 1 July James Oxenham takes over the position of executive director, while Nicolas Chiew has already taken on the role of operations manager.

On behalf of all of us at the Vertikal Press we wish him a long, happy and healthy retirement. He will certainly be missed.