BDO veteran Russell Postle among 2025 Australia Day AO honourees

03 February 2025 Consultancy.com.au

Russell Postle, a veteran of BDO’s office in Brisbane, has been recognised among this year’s Australia Day honourees for significant service to the community and accounting profession.

Postle, who joined BDO more than three decades ago and continues to work for the firm as a business services consultant, was awarded as a Member of the Order of Australia (AO) in the general division.

Others with a connection to the accounting industry to receive honours included two company founders; Brenton ‘Harry’ Perks (Perks & Associates), and Peter Bray (Bray & Associates), who were both awarded OAMs.

After a career start at KPMG in 1974, Postle has spent the past 30 years as a member and partner of BDO’s private & entrepreneurial clients division and now business services practice in Queensland, working with numerous family businesses and individuals in the agribusiness, aviation, professional services and manufacturing sectors, the latter practice which he led.

During that time he has amassed extensive experience in the areas of audit, cost accounting, business valuations, corporate restructures, forensic investigations, and taxation consulting, with particular expertise in planning and managing the succession of family business down generations. More recently, his focus has been on supporting non-for-profit sector clients as a consultant.

It’s a sector Postle knows well, having served with and been on the board of numerous community organisations dating back to Jaycees in the late 70s. Since then, he has been involved with the Salvation Army, Rotary Club, and various community initiatives in K’gari (Fraser Island), including as a volunteer firefighter. Until recently, he chaired the QLD branch of the Royal Flying Doctors.

“Russell’s incredible dedication has driven many initiatives, including our Towards 100 strategy and ten-year funding agreement with Queensland Health. His leadership continues to shape the RFDS and support communities across Queensland,” the organisation said following the AO announcement, with BDO chief executive partner Tony Schiffmann among those offering congratulations.

Accounting OAMs

Meanwhile, accounting veterans and company founders Harry Perks and Peter Bray have been awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) alongside just over 300 individuals nationwide, for, respectively, their service to business and the horse-racing industry of South Australia, and for service to the New South Wales community of the Southern Highlands.

Perks co-founded Perks & Associates in Adelaide in 1981 after spending time at Touche Ross (later Deloitte), the firm since growing to become one the country’s largest private accounting & advisory practices with more than 200 professionals. He left the business in 1998, before then establishing property funds management firm PPI, which has over $750 million of assets under management.

Meanwhile, Bray’s career remarkably dates back to the 1950s, spending over a decade at Price Waterhouse between Sydney and New York up until 1969. He then established Bray & Associates in 1977, which currently has offices in Sydney and the Southern Highlands centre of Bowral. Despite retiring as a partner in 1999, Bray still serves some of the firm’s clients as a consultant.

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