Richard Turner

Richard Turner brings the perspective of a serial founder who has built and scaled multiple companies into the hundreds of millions and billions of dollars, sharing hard-won lessons from a career spent starting, growing and eventually selling businesses across manufacturing, distribution and energy. Named Australian Entrepreneur of the Year in 2010, Richard has gone on to be recognised with that national title twice, alongside two South Australian Entrepreneur of the Year awards and the Fast Movers Award in consecutive years, a body of recognition that reflects decades of building enterprises from the ground up rather than a single lucky outcome.

Beyond his own companies, Richard has spent years giving back to South Australia’s entrepreneurial community. In 1998 he founded the Young Entrepreneurs Organisation in South Australia, which grew into the Entrepreneurs Organisation, and he served as its Founding President. From 2019 to 2021 he held the role of Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of South Australia, where he personally mentored hundreds of early-stage and scaling business owners, and he has also served as a Growth Expert with the Australian Centre for Business Growth and Board Chair across multiple companies. In 2023, Wiley published his book, The Essential Entrepreneur: What It Takes to Start, Scale and Sell a Successful Business, distilling those decades of experience into practical guidance for founders.

Richard’s own track record is the clearest proof of his method. His family business began with Holbrook Meats, which became Holco Ltd and listed publicly in 1986 before evolving into T&R Pastoral and ultimately Thomas Foods, a company now valued in the billions. In 1987 he co-founded Regency Food Services with his brother, a venture that grew into Bidvest and then Bidfood, another billion-dollar enterprise. In 1996 he founded Regency Staffing, later known as Chandler McLeod Hospitality Staffing, and in 2004 he founded ZEN Home Energy Systems, which became ZEN Energy, a further billion-dollar business.

Based in South Australia, Richard now shares these experiences on stage, giving audiences an authentic, first-hand account of what it actually takes to launch, grow, and successfully exit a business, from the early struggles through to building something of lasting scale.