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Contributions2020-08-27T01:06:20+00:00

Brendan Crotty
Former Managing Director Of Australand

I am pleased to provide testamentary support for Matthew Joyce based on my commercial and personal relationship with Matthew since 1997. I was Managing Director of the Australand Property Group and its predecessor organisations for a period of 17 years, until I retired in mid 2007 and now hold several private and public sector non-executive directorships.

Matthew was initially the General Manager of Australand’s Land Development operations in Perth and subsequently became Executive General Manager of the company’s Land Development Division in early 2000 and held that position until he resigned to pursue what he perceived to be a better career opportunity elsewhere.

I held a high opinion of Matthew as an executive and as a person to the extent that I acted as a referee for Matthew when the opportunity arose for him to take a senior role with Nakheel Corporation in Dubai. Matthew is a very competent executive with high personal standards and a very well developed sense of morality and ethics.

I shall always be happy to provide further testimony regarding Matthew if requested.

Brendan Crotty

Peter Dransfield
Company Director And Property Consultant
Former Multiplex Non Executive Director

I had the pleasure of working with Matthew for four years at Australand – where we were both Executive General Managers of our respective Divisions. Matthew was always capable, talented and hardworking and had a very good understanding of the markets in which he operated. He generated a high degree of loyalty from those who worked both for him and with him and many of us considered that he was a candidate for the position of CEO at a later time. He led his division into some very good projects and made significant gains in winning work from Government agencies.

When Matthew left Australand and joined St Hilliers, I worked with him again as a Non Executive member of several fund investment committees where Matthew showed a high degree of motivation to successfully establish the funds management activities of St Hilliers. In addition Matthew was helpful to me in linking up the Multiplex people in Dubai with projects that suited their skill base.

I do hope that Matthew is able to win his legal fight in Dubai and come back to Australia with his name and reputation restored to the position it was in prior to his overseas career.

Peter Dransfield

Karl Fender
Director Fender Katsalidis Mirams Architects
President Australian Institute Of Architects, Victorian Chapter

Mathew has played senior and pivotal roles for major development companies throughout Australia and around the world. It has certainly been a privilege and a pleasure working with him towards great architectural and urban design outcomes. He leads by example and has that rare ability to command deep respect from peers at all levels of a corporate environment. Three particular experiences working with him come to mind…

The first was while Matthew worked at Australand. He managed a competition for a major project of urban renewal in Sydney called Second Ponds Creek. He implored the consultant group to focus on triple bottom line outcomes with particular emphasis on community and sustainability. This approach was embraced by the team and viewed favourably by the Government. The project was awarded to the team based on a strong platform created by Matthew from the outset. His focussed leadership and high commercial principles provided rare exemplar to the team.

Later Matthew invited us to Dubai to undertake a peer review of the new city plan for Nakheel at Dubai Waterfront. Interestingly, his challenge was not to import foreign design strategies on the Dubai landscape but to embrace local and traditional planning techniques and adopt these in the new master plan. He suggested we read about history and culture of Dubai before designing for it and avoid imposing Western ideology upon an ancient land and an ancient people. He was obviously deeply committed to respecting the local culture and it`s environmental expectations. His personal respect for the local community was obvious.

Matthew championed the notion of walkable neighbourhoods. He challenged the dominance of car dependent culture endemic in the developed and developing world. He supported our call to adopt these principles in a residential masterplan at Dubai waterfront in the face of sometimes callous commercial imperatives. The strategy proved highly successful with the project selling out in four days. This was one of the most locally appropriate and successful projects launched in Dubai.

Matthew’s quiet, determined and passionate respect for culture and environment is infectious. His ability to effect change by empowering others with high values is an outstanding attribute. I wish him well in his path to recovery in Dubai and look forward to seeing him retain his position as a highly respected professional and individual.

Karl Fender
www.fkmarchitects.com

Dunstan De Souza
Managing Partner Colin Biggers & Paisley

I first met Matthew about ten years ago when I was a solicitor doing work for Australand and Matt came across to Sydney as the NSW General Manager for residential development. Over the years I have gotten to know Matthew through extensive and varied dealings from acquiring and developing property to doing some personal legal work for him and also having the opportunity to spend time with Matthew and his family socially.

Matthew’s word has always been his bond. He has been honest and consistent in his behaviour. In my extensive dealings with Matthew, his integrity is not something that I would ever place any doubt upon.

Matthew is a loving husband and father and a great asset to his family. He is also a loyal, trusting and trusted friend.

Dunstan De Souza
www.cbp.com.au

Mike Day
Founding Partner Roberts Day

Matthew Joyce is an exceptional leader in our industry in Australia who has established an enviable reputation through promoting the highest community ideals and business integrity. Matthew has been a passionate champion of contemporary community development and has pioneered many property industry innovations in Australia and Dubai.

The fact that Matthew was approached by Egon Zehnder, on behalf of the Dubai Government’s premier property development entity, Nakheel, to assume the role of Managing Director of the emirate’s signature 12,000 hectare Waterfront City project attests to Matt’s standing within the international urban development fraternity. During the three years Matthew held the role at Nakheel he gained considerable respect from the Emirati community for what he publicly acknowledged as the privileged position he held in laying the foundation for future communities to evolve and to reflect and respect the local Arab culture, rather than simply creating real estate.

Matthew was often asked to assume additional responsibilities for the Chairman of Dubai World, including representing Nakheel internationally on a number of the Company’s global property portfolio responsibilities and in mid 2008 received a personal commendation from His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum for the ethos, erudition and financial success Matthew brought to Waterfront City and Nakheel.

Mike Day
www.robertsday.com.au

David Lawrence
Former Company Executive Australand And Nakheel

I have known Matthew Joyce for a period of 14 years. During this period he has been my line manager both in Australia and the UAE. Matthew had the attributes as a leader and was highly respected by corporate Australia for his ability and skills in all facets of property development. As I am aware he was also highly respected in the UAE in his capacity as Managing Director, Waterfront, a subsidiary company of Nakheel.

As a colleague and as my line manager I have always found Matthew to be diligent, honest, loyal and above all he had the necessary people skills as well as people management skills to command the post and mandate of Managing Director.

I have always found Matthew to be personable and caring from a business and personal point of view. I consider him to be an excellent corporate and civil citizen, in my humble opinion, Matthew is an outstanding husband and father, highly respected in corporate life and would not jeopardise his family and reputation in acting inappropriately.

David Lawrence

Geoff Roberts
Director Manidis Roberts

I had the privilege of working with Matthew over a number of years until he decided to go to UAE. I am a person who works on large land development and infrastructure projects, particularly in there planning phases. I worked with Matthew on more than 10 of these such projects. In most of these cases my contribution was to bring the sustainability overlay to the project with Matt playing the project director role.

It was in this area that Matthew really excelled and to this day is unquestionably one of the best clients I have ever had in a career spanning 30 years. Matthew’s drive a culture of innovation and industry best practice and was a pioneer in Sydney in water conservation, urban design and broader sustainability outcomes. The one particular project that stands out for me is the Landcom Second Ponds Creek project where, as a team led by Matthew, we really did produce internationally significant outcomes. This project was significant not just because of the outcomes we achieved as a team but because this was an incubator project in the true sense of the word. The ideas that were developed on this project have been further refined by the project team on a number of other large land development projects since this time.

Matthew is all about teams achieving great outcomes, he has a personal style of setting outcomes and letting his advisors determine the best way of achieving these. He is a motivator with a trusting personality and a commitment to excellence.

I wish him well.
Geoff Roberts
www.manidisroberts.com.au

Marcus Gillezeau
Producer/Director Firelight Productions

My wife Ellenor and I first met Matt through Ange Higgins in 1999. We were producing a documentary for Channel 7 about a tall ship that was located in Perth. Ange was always very generous, providing us with a place to stay, loans of her car and great meals. They moved to Sydney not long after this.

We got to know Matt better once they arrived in Sydney. We would often enjoy barbeques and long dinners through summer and in winter we managed to get a regular tennis game going. We soon realised that Ange was about to marry one of the most generous, intelligent and genuine people we know. Matt has that rare quality where he is truly interested in understanding your interests, what you do and what your passions are.

We both had our first children around the same time. Their son Jack and our daughter Elsie soon became best mates and we spent a lot of time together.

It was around this time that I was given an incredible opportunity by Matt to work on assisting with a tender to design and develop “the greenest suburb ever” in the north west of Sydney. As a filmmaker, this was a rare opportunity to work outside my normal environment, yet have the chance to apply my knowledge and skills on a relatively large scale. During this project, I came to realise that Matt was determined to try and make a difference with the way that our cities, suburbs and lives could be shaped by introducing simple but highly effective changes to way we created communities. The tender was successful and the legacy of this project is being borne out as I write.

Both our families also had a great holiday together in Crescent Head one summer. During our stay, bush fires raged through to the south of the small village and tragically Elle’s brothers home was destroyed, along with most of the family’s possessions. Ange and Matt didn’t hesitate when they got back to Sydney to pack a box of clothes, toys and other goods to send up to Elle’s brother and his kids.

When Matt and Ange told us they were heading to Dubai, we were at once excited for them, but also very sad that our good friends were leaving for several years. Our daughter Elsie was still quite young, but we also knew that her and Jack that wouldn’t get to meet again until later in life. I did manage to visit Matt and Ange in Dubai and was impressed once again that, despite the scale and pace of development in Dubai, Matt was still intent on trying to make a difference with the way that the developments were being created to ensure that they took in to account the environmental needs of our future.

Matt is one of those rare people who actually does what he believes. He is, without doubt, one of the most honest and real people we know.

Marcus Gillezeau
www.firelight.com.au

Charlie Gubbins

I was telling my family this week about the time that Matt saved Lisa and I from certain death at Peterborough many years ago. We drove to a fishing spot near London Bridge to look at the Ocean on a day that the sea was raging. I took Matt and Lisa down some limestone steps to my favorite fishing spot about 10 meters above the water at the end of a narrow ledge. Had we all gone in it would have been my fault for leading my two friends into this death trap.

We stood on the ledge in the side of the cliff watching the awesome waves from above and listening to their mighty roar. Sure enough there was a wave so big that it came up the side of the cliff and hit us. We were knocked over and very nearly went in but not quite. I got to my feet and headed for home along the narrow ledge and beckoned the others to follow. It was Matt’s cool head that looked out to sea and spotted the next the wave that was seconds away and would have met me half way along the ledge. He instructed us to huddle against the cliff while we got pounded by the set of waves before carefully following the ledge out to safety.

I cant imagine that he has been this cool for all of the past 7 months but I do think that he is up for this challenge more than almost anyone I know. I believe deep down that as tough as it must be, he is tough enough to overcome the stress that he must be under.

Charlie Gubbins

Sean O’Toole
Managing Director And Chief Executive Landcom

I first met Matthew Joyce when he worked with Australand  with whom Landcom had a number of partnering arrangements.We at Landcom were pleased to work with Matthew because, of all our private sector partners at the time, he demonstrated the most genuine commitment to the principles of sustainability. On a business level I found Matthew to be a man of the highest integrity, a man on whom you could rely and trust.

Personally, Matthew is a delightful human being, well liked and respected  by all who know him. On behalf of my colleagues we send our support and want Matthew to know that he enjoys our utmost confidence.

Sean O’Toole

www.landcom.com.au

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