Supporting Suncorp Defence families
What draws people to serve? In the lead up to ANZAC Day, Ben Dullroy, an active Army Reserve Officer and Chair of Suncorp’s Veterans, Reserves & Defence Families Employee Resource Group shares why he served in the Army and how he continues to serve at Suncorp today.
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While I’ve always been interested in the military, it was a display at my local beach and the promise of free university that caught my attention as a 15-year-old.
The Australian Defence Force Academy had set up a display at King’s Beach in my hometown of Caloundra advertising their scholarships, and it was enough to get me to register my interest. I was fortunate enough to be awarded a scholarship in my final year of schooling.
It was only once I started my military training that I truly started to appreciate the opportunity I had to serve my country.
After graduating and completing my Army Officer training at the Royal Military College Duntroon, I spent the best part of a decade leading soldiers in units across Australia, with a personal and professional highlight being deploying on operations in Iraq.
I never intended to spend my whole career with the Army, so around ten years ago I decided to transfer to the Army Reserve and start my civilian career.
I started as a management consultant – just a slight departure from my experience as an Artillery Officer! – and my first major engagement was with Suncorp.
From the outset there were a lot of similarities between the culture of Suncorp and the service ethos of the Army. The way we look after our people really stood out to me among all the companies I worked for as a consultant.
After several years as a consultant, I was given the opportunity to join Suncorp as an employee, so I jumped at the chance – it was a company I already greatly admired. Since joining Suncorp, I have worked in the Real Estate Program Management Office, led the Physical Security team and now manage Strategy, Innovation & Delivery for our consumer banking team.
While I’ve always been supported both as a Veteran and a Reservist at Suncorp, I felt there was an opportunity for me to do more.
So in 2019, I got together with a few other employees with links to Defence and together we created the Veterans, Reserves and Defence Families Employee Resource Group, to build greater support for our people who have links to the Defence community.
Since then, our members have been active in fundraising for charities like Legacy that support the Defence community.
We’ve also been able to enhance leave options to support Reservists and other emergency services volunteers, including introducing unlimited paid emergency response leave in January in response to the Australian bushfires.
I’ve been fortunate to work for two organisations with strong service cultures, and it’s always driven me to want to do more.
I joined the Army as a 17 year old for the opportunity to serve my country and challenge myself to be the best I could be. I’m still serving 21 years later for the same reasons, and also the privilege of leading soldiers. Some of the best people I’ve worked with have been in uniform – the rest are mostly at Suncorp!
