Humans of Bis – Chad
Meet Chad Morris, Site Manager at our Gove Operations in Northern Territory. You can say he’s a ‘been everywhere man’, because really he has. Originally from Port Hedland in Western Australia, Chad joined us in 2020 as a Safety and Sustainability Manager.
If you look at his resume there’s a long list of roles, from the Navy to offshore to the big miners with the aim of experiencing the world and raising the bar for no one other than himself. This urge has followed Chad since his military days, with plenty of stories and achievements he hopes will encourage his kids to pursue, enjoy and work hard in whatever path they decide to choose.
When an opportunity came up at our Gove operation, he didn’t miss the chance to jump back onboard. He had left the business, but you could say he missed the people, and perhaps he felt like he didn’t get the chance to accomplish all he wanted to do. All he (and we!) knew was this role would give him what he needed – a big challenge and a change of direction from over ten years in Safety.
As Site Manager, Chad now leads delivery of load & haul operations, workshop and road maintenance services at the unique bauxite site in North East Arnhem land.
The role is one that requires a multiple of skills throughout each day - health and safety, HR, financial, commercial, client \engagement and local engagement– but he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Bis may be over 100 years, but it is a company with huge potential and I am enjoying being part of the business journey, watching how the company develops and grows moving forward.
I am proud of what I have accomplished so far at Bis and I look forward to what more I can offer, along with the satisfaction in seeing teams achieve things that I have developed to make their day to day work safer and more gratifying.”
Chad knows the early bird gets the worm, starting his day on site at 4am, so he can make it to the office to 5:15am to prep the daily plan with the on-shift supervisor before the rest of the crew arrives for pre-start, he makes his daily rounds and the production meeting with the client is in full swing by 8:30am.
If you ask his team, he has genuine care for the people he works with and it's super important to him that they function well together and foster a positive work environment. If things are tight, you may even find him jumping in the cab of a T1250's so operators can grab a break.
But no one is perfect. We’re still questioning his background when he refers to sausages as hot-dogs at the staff BBQs, and he’s slowly getting to grips with the local coffee shops in the NT not selling decaf soy lattes and lemon spritzers.
Chad’s worst habit is breaking out into a spontaneous karaoke and terrible dad jokes. This seems to be received the same way at work than it does home to his wife and two daughters back on the sunny coast (Queensland). For our site-based office staff, luckily a good pair of noise-cancelling headphones will block out the Backstreet Boys, not so much his daughters at school pick-up during his off swing.
Regardless of his terrible taste and cheesy work-balance tactics, Chad knows overcoming challenges and kicking goals with his team is its worth the everyday grind.
“Come with the ambition to want to make change, find good ideas and be willing to put in the work to get the reward.”
