Wolf Martinick approached Lance Bosch and Kristy Sell in mid-2002 to see if we were interested in setting up a new Company where we could both become key owners of the business alongside him as part of his succession planning. A few months later we had the paperwork in place and launched MBS Environmental. Little did we know this was just before a big resources boom and our little group of 6-8 people was to expand rapidly to be able to keep up with the huge demand.
The 3 of us kept working happily together with many of Martinick McNulty clients moving across to MBS. Wolf retired in 2004 with Lance and I going on to run the business together until Lance retired in 2015. We may be down to 1 amigo, but the team is 29 strong and continues to deliver for our clients.
There have been a few changes along the way. We had flexible work arrangements before it was a thing, recognising that if we were to meet work needs in the 2004 -2009 boom, we needed to have processes where working parents and some of our younger people wanting to combine travel and or study and work could work part time and not always from our West Perth offices. We continue this option, having people based in the south-west as well as in Perth on a permanent basis.
We tried an office in Brisbane for about 18 months until our very capable lead consultant Anna McMullen was lured by a client to an international posting. Being pregnant with my first child and having little idea of the practicalities of juggling a baby and work, Lance and I decided running a Brisbane office from Perth was a step too far at that time. Our business approach has always been if we aren’t convinced, we can do it well, we don’t do it and will find others to help meet the client’s needs.
In 2004 we employed our first geochemist to start actioning Lances vision of having a geochemistry team to work besides our environmental scientists and engineers. The Geoscience team has evolved into a really important part of our business and helps sets us apart from many other environmental consultancies.
MBS continues to operate today as Wolf envisaged it – a 100% employee owned, WA based company who works on projects locally, Nationally and Internationally. The unwavering support of both Wolf and Lance have let me be part of this journey and to continue their legacy.
