Long-time LAI Group executive Juan Uribe was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at a company corporate dinner earlier this month.
Uribe joined LAI at the company’s Sydney office in June 1980, initially completing general duties around the workshop and store before becoming a truck driver for deliveries and installations. He later became spare parts store-man and service manager and began his involvement in Timezone operations.
In 1984, the then general manager in Sydney decided he wanted to make Uribe redundant, claiming he had limited English skills and could not relate to customers.
LAI head Malcolm Steinberg recalled: “I was so convinced of Juan’s loyalty, dedication and commitment that I decided to let the existing GM go and appoint Juan as the general manager.”
Uribe went to Singapore in 1993 to establish a Timezone division soon after the law changed to allow FECS and later set up a sales distribution business there as well. This was followed by Timezones in Indonesia and the Philippines a few years later. In 2000, he returned to Sydney as Australian general manager for Timezone and three years later acquired a 50 per cent stake in Timezone Funtasia on the Australian Gold Coast.
In presenting the award, Malcolm Steinberg said: “Juan has made a big contribution to the development of Timezone and thoroughly deserves this award.”
