When Graham Catt became CEO of the Canberra Business Chamber in early 2020, he never imagined that he would have to guide businesses through three of the most difficult years in the ACT’s history: a time of lockdowns, regulations, and businesses unable to trade. But the crisis has passed, and businesses are optimistic once more.

Earlier this week, Mr Catt announced his resignation from the Chamber to become CEO of Independent Schools Australia, the national peak body for private schools. He will leave the Chamber in April.

“As someone who moved to Canberra in 2018, it was a great privilege,” Mr Catt reflected on his time with the Chamber. “I certainly didn’t understand the diversity and the richness of the kind of businesses and the private sector here.

“The fantastic thing about being in this role over the past three years was just that development for myself, understanding and getting the appreciation of all the different sorts of businesses here, what they do, how diverse the private sector is. I am moving to a quite different kind of role, one that’s very much involved on the national stage, but I will take with me that knowledge and understanding, and the relationships that I’ve built.”

Before coming to the Business Chamber, Mr Catt had worked both in private industry, as managing director of the communications agency Digital Eskimo (2001–04), and in peak bodies, as NSW and ACT state manager of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (2004–07), and CEO of the Australian Veterinary Association (2008–18) and the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (2018–19).

Mr Catt started as the Chamber’s CEO in January 2020, during the Black Summer bushfires.

“I came back from holiday; we all remember the smoke haze that impacted Canberra and the region. It was a really challenging time.

“I never could have predicted when dealing with those issues what could actually lie ahead, and that we would move into a situation where businesses had to close, where people had to stay home, where we had to home-school our children, where we had to figure out what the supports were, and what we would need to do to look after businesses as well as the whole community. For most of us, it would be impossible to imagine that was going to happen.”

2020 and 2021 involved being locked down, engaging with government and business, understanding policy, and advocating for members to get the best outcome, Mr Catt recalled. He is most proud of the results the Chamber achieved for business throughout those times.

• Local businesses vexed by delays in government support (26 August 2021)
• COVID leaves Canberra businesses ‘critical’ (27 August 2021)
• Businesses want pathway out of lockdown (15 September 2021)
• Canberra businesses are desperate, says Chamber (16 September 2021)
• Businesses still hamstrung by restrictions as lockdown eases (15 September 2021)

In his view, his role was to keep people calm and confident in a very difficult situation, and to pass on information to them, understand how it impacted them, and communicate that back to governments and policymakers.

“It was a remarkable situation where a policy or program would be created overnight,” Mr Catt said. “It would be communicated to us. We would have to get that information out to our members as quickly as we possibly could. We might get some feedback from our members that needed to go back to governments. We might talk to the media about what that policy meant for business. By the next night, that program or policy might have been modified or changed, based on that feedback…

“For many of us … it was an era of long days and long nights, but also of quite amazing collaboration … working strongly and closely with some of our member organisations and some of the industry bodies in Canberra. … It forged relationships that are still there between people in those different sectors.”

Those relationships with members, media, government, and other community groups, Mr Catt believes, have continued, and let the Chamber be a better voice and a better advocate for the business community.

Even when the lockdowns had lifted, businesses had to restore consumer confidence, while many faced staff and skills shortages, supply chain issues, and inflation.

• Post-lockdown economic recovery predicted (9 November 2021)
• Canberra businesses need consumer confidence to survive (29 January 2022)
• ACT sees record number of businesses open and close in 2020–21 (20 March 2022)
• Canberra businesses face post-lockdown challenges (15 August 2022)
• Down to business: Blue sky with grey clouds ahead (17 February 2023)

Those challenges are still there, Mr Catt said, but local businesses are now more positive.

“For the most part, businesses are reasonably optimistic that they are not going to be adversely impacted by unforeseen events, perhaps for the next little period – and that’s quite a positive change from where we’ve been for the last few years,” Mr Catt said.

“There are certainly challenging times ahead; economics lies at the heart of that – interest rates and cost of living increases, and what they’re going to mean for customers as much as for businesses themselves, their profitability, and their margins.

“But the general sense we’re getting is that … people have got a reasonable degree of confidence that they know what those challenges are, and they know what lies ahead … They can plan and work or trade their way through those.”

Besides his work in the pandemic, Mr Catt is proud to have helped the community better understand how important business is to the ACT. While Canberra has a reputation as a public service town, there are more than 34,000 businesses here, and they provide 63 per cent of the Territory’s jobs.

“Our future as a city and the Territory really does depend on business growth and business driving our economy,” Mr Catt said. “The community can play a key role in supporting that when it comes to their purchasing decisions.”

Mr Catt urged the community to support local businesses by buying goods or services locally, rather than shopping online, as many have increasingly done over the last three years.

“One of the best ways that we support business is by being a customer, and choosing a local business over an online retailer,” Mr Catt said. “It might be a few dollars more for us as a consumer, but that can make an enormous difference to a local business and its customer base.”

Mr Catt leaves the Chamber in April. In the next six weeks, there is still much to be done. The Chamber will continue to help businesses to start, grow, and transform; to provide services and support for businesses; and to connect people. A couple of upcoming events (such as the annual Diplomatic Business Connections) will bring the business community together.

Recruitment for Mr Catt’s successor is underway. Mr Catt will make sure that, if there is an interim between his departure and the new CEO starting, the organisation is well-positioned to look after businesses.

Leaving the Chamber was not an easy decision, Mr Catt said. He had not been looking for a change, but Independent Schools Australia approached him about the CEO position.

While he has been involved in education for many years – higher education (he sits on the board of the University of Canberra’s Faculty of Business, Government and Law), vocational education and training, and professional development – school age education is a first for him.

“Education lies at the heart of where we’re going as a country, and there are some strong synergies with some of what we think about in business: skills shortages, future schooling for the country, and big issues like climate change. How we educate at school level plays a very important part in that.”

Besides, he has two school-age children, so he has a strong personal interest.

“I’ve really enjoyed working with the Chamber,” Mr Catt said. “I really enjoy the role that I play, and how important it is to provide a voice for local business, but after the last three years, it’s a good moment to have a change and move into something new.

“I’m also quite confident that the Chamber is in a good position, in terms of our team, our board, and our organisation. New leadership would be a good thing for the Chamber at this point.”