In July 2026, Hamish Griffin took the reins as CEO of HMA Group, the industrial engineering and equipment business backed by Anchorage Capital Partners, with the appointment brokered by Allura Partners. It’s a long way from the mine site outside Carrington in Queensland where a 19-year-old Hamish was fencing lease boundaries with his cousin Winks, and washing his clothes in a cement mixer.

Between then and now he’s completed an electrical trade, a stint at Nilsen, and 14 years at WorkPac – six as CEO – culminating in a sale to ASX-listed Tasmea in December 2025. We sat down with Hamish to talk about that journey and how he’s approaching his first 100 days at HMA.

Q. You’re six weeks into the HMA job. How’s it feeling?

I’m very fresh. I’ve absolutely relished it, to tell you the truth. When someone first gets a CEO job, most people are full of bravado saying, “I knew I was ready”. No one’s ready, it just doesn’t work that way. (Through experience) I’ve got this resilience factor – nothing worries me – and luckily nothing here needs to change too much, we just need to focus on some key areas to allow this business to grow, to be safer, to do more with our people.

Q. Take us back to the start. When you were fencing lease boundaries on a mine site, did it ever cross your mind that one day you’d be a CEO?

I started working in the mines as a labourer at 19, for my cousin. We were building cattle yards in the middle of nowhere and drove past a mine site, and he said, “I reckon there’s money in there”. He was right. We ended up fencing the lease out bush, washing our clothes in a cement mixer, showering under a turkey’s nest if the overflow was running. Way back then I had no expectation I’d be sitting in this sort of role. But I always liked the idea of delivering something bigger than just me.

Q. From there to an electrical trade, then Nilsen where you worked your way into the role of construction manager. At WorkPac, you initially moved into a business development role – how did you navigate that transition?

I struggled, if I’m honest. You never consider yourself a salesperson. But now I say everyone’s in sales. No matter what role you’re in, you’re always selling something. I tell my kids that all the time: if you can’t sell yourself, or a product, or what you’re doing, you’re going to limit your options.

Q. You became General Manager of WorkPac, then CEO, finishing your 14-year stint there as Managing Director. In the space of five years, you took it from around $350 million in revenue to over a billion. What was your model for growth?

We changed from a transactional labour-hire business to become a ‘built workforce’ for our clients and we grew our business in the mining industry, which was under significant cost pressure. Our specialty was securing someone to site as quickly as possible with the right qualifications. Clients would take three or four months to do that themselves, and we could do it in four weeks. At the peak we had close to nine thousand people working in mining across the country. I used to call our business ‘the Beast’.

Q. And how did you navigate the economic challenges presented by COVID?

It was a big task. I was jumping on a lot of fires. The business had bought some pretty distressed businesses out of WA that weren’t in our remit. I went into full operational mode; selling businesses, selling plant and equipment, working with the banks. At the same time, we were fighting a Federal Court case around our employment model, with claims made against us that were completely untrue. It was abhorrent, the narrative. When you’re running a business with an average tenure of ten years, and your people are wondering whether the company will exist, that’s tough. Of my six and a bit years, about three were effectively saving and protecting the business.

Q. What got you through it?

Grit. A lot of grit. I had some incredible people around me, and occasionally we’d ask ourselves, “Are we going to win this?”. I’d say, “I think we can, but geez, it’s tough”.

We didn’t do everything right as a leadership team; I take some ownership for that. We weren’t honest enough, early on, about the damage being done, and we didn’t lean into sharing what we were seeing with our people. That hurt the culture. But we came through it, and the next three years were a lot more fun.

Q. What did that experience teach you about running a business?

Knowledge is king; not just to me, but to your people. We rolled out anonymous staff surveys and got 85 to 90% response rates. The number one thing that came back, every time, was communication; people just wanted to know where we were going.

I love the line, “simplicity on the far side of complexity”. Every business is complex, but if you can’t boil it down to what you’re actually good at, you’re not going anywhere. So we did that; we figured out what we were brilliant at, sold it internally first, then sold it to our clients. And it worked.

Q. After fourteen years with WorkPac, why HMA?

Taking the business through to a sale was a big thing, and to sell to Tasmea, was an incredible opportunity. We sold it in December and over Christmas I had a break and hung out with my family, which was great. I hadn't seen them for a while.

And I said to my wife, “I love WorkPac, but I’m done. I’m bored”.

I needed to find something that would make me want to wake up and run hard again for another five or six years. So, I effectively resigned with nothing in place.

I wasn’t really looking for anything when Allura put forward the opportunity to work with Anchorage, but I loved the idea of a business that was private. I’d met Anchorage very briefly and knew they had a really strong reputation as a small to medium-sized firm that does good deals and runs a good show. Then they introduced me to the HMA executive team – people who’d been there a long time and clearly loved the business. They had great clients, great business, great opportunity to expand on their remit and grow the business with Anchorage. That ticked enough boxes.

Q. How has the transition been?

What’s nice is that I’m not coming in thinking, what do I do now? I’ve got this great bunch of people and they’re just looking for someone that can help them. They already know what to do. They already know where they want to go.

And that’s going forward. People always want to be going forward. They don’t like going sideways or backwards. So, I make quick decisions. I like that 99% of people are making decisions based on the knowledge they have. They’re not going out to do the wrong thing. So I just say, “If it’s wrong, let’s fix it quick”. And hopefully 98% of the time we nail it, we get it right.

Q. Any advice for someone chasing a CEO seat of their own?

I’m no genius; but I read a line years ago and it’s what I’ve subconsciously done ever since: If you’ve got options in front of you, choose the one that looks like the most fun. When you get there, rip in, don’t muck around. And don’t get too attached to the end game, because it’ll change five times before you get there.

Three years into being CEO at WorkPac, I remember thinking, this is not the journey I thought I was on. If I’d clung to the original plan, I would have dropped the ball and said, “I’m out”. Stay open to where it takes you.