Meet Ashley Mesch

Ashley is a Lunga Kitja man from the east Kimberly's and has spent more than fifteen years in the mining and oil and gas industry. With detail drafting and structural engineering as his foundation, Ashley has been fortunate enough to be involved in projects such as Roy Hill, Ichthys and Prelude and has been involved in the delivery of more than $14 billion in projects.

 Ashley has a significant amount of experience across: Quality Assurance, Risk Management, Quality Control, Legal Compliance, HSEQ Integrated Business Management Systems, Change Management, Engineering, Drafting, Corporate Governance & Corporate Strategy, Indigenous engagement and Corporate Social Responsibility. Ashley now is Managing Director of Four Hills Services, a JV between Four Hills Group an 100% Indigenous owned entity, and Australian Listed Company SSH Group.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Unite our voices.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
We respectfully acknowledge the watch up new of people as
the traditional owners of the land in which these has created.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Hi. I'm a Crystal Kenseeller. I'm a proud Jarwin and
Braddrew woman, a supply diversity expert and published author. Welcome
to Meet the Mob, a series dedicated to showcasing black
excellence in business. I get to interview deadly first Nation
business owners from around the country and learn about their
white Today I'm joined by Ashley Mesh from four Hill Services,

(00:46):
who will share with us his white why got into
business and why he does what he does.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
So let's kick it off. How you going, Ashley?

Speaker 4 (00:52):
Yeah? Really well thanks?

Speaker 1 (00:53):
Yeah, tell us who you are. Here's your mob. Yeah, I'm.

Speaker 4 (00:57):
Ashley Mesh, a proud longer Kidjaman from the East Kimberley region,
tires into the Gunyani people as well throughout that bits
Roy Hall's Creek region up north. Pretty much quintessential Australian
though there's bits of everything, especially across Europe and Croatian
and that sort of thing as well. So yeah, we've all.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Got a bit of a mix, I think at some point.

Speaker 4 (01:16):
Yeah, we're all indigenous from somewhere right.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Yeah, definitely, definitely to talk to us a little bit
about your why what's driving you in business?

Speaker 4 (01:26):
My wif I've I'm I'm very much a family man,
and I suppose I felt that I was gifting an
opportunity at the young years that my sort of ancestors
of my family didn't have, and I felt that I
was doing them justice by pushing the boundaries where they
didn't get opportunities. So I could see that it made
them proud as I went through the years, and it

(01:47):
made me feel valued that I could show that respect
back to them. So now I get to do it
for my own kids as well, so it makes me
feel proud in that manner.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
Yeah, definitely you will. You know, being that role model
for your family but also your kids is really important. Yeah,
So talk to us a little bit about four Services. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:05):
Four Hills Services is the coming together of two really
strong companies. There's four Hills Group, which one hundred percent
Indigenous owned and operated for traditional owners there from across
wa Goldfields Region, the Pilver Region and the Kimble's and
then we've got a publicly listed ASX company in SSH Group.

(02:27):
We deliver services in fleet higher plans and equipment, higher
recruitment services, and security services.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
And that's across the mining oil and.

Speaker 4 (02:35):
Gas specifically mining oil and gas.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
Yeah great, So tell me about what you're trying to
achieve through Four Hills.

Speaker 4 (02:43):
Four Hills is a little bit unique in that there's
a strong social ESG element to how we operate. Four
Hills Group in itself is fundamentally built on an Aboriginal
economic standard, which is it's written a line to the
IS standards and it basically gives us a game plan
to how we operate within that ESG scope. So we're

(03:05):
commercially structured in a manner that has a really good
game plan and how we provide benefits back to people,
community and culture. So for myself, one of the benefits
for the company and how we are unique is that
we are structured and we do achieve in that ESG scope.
So it's also what clients like to deal with us.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
Definitely, I've never heard of Aboriginal economic standard? Is that
what you said?

Speaker 4 (03:31):
Oh, look at it's I'm from a quality and compliance background,
so compliance is very important to me and the other
directors at sit In Fall Hills Group. So essentially what
it is is that it outlines the parameters and the
compliance that we want to go into partnership with our partners.
It's the game plan that we take to our clients
and say, look, when you come and engage us, this

(03:53):
is where money is going to go. This is how
we engage with traditional owners. This is how we provide
career pathways with other Abiginal people. It basically said, even
if we don't hit the targets that you're presenting to us,
we're going to have a really decent crack at making
it work. And I think a lot of the time
our clients really appreciate that structure to how we approach it.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
So what sorts of things are involved in it? Is it?
So you mentioned targets, So is that targets around employment, training, procurement.

Speaker 4 (04:24):
Yeah, pretty much all the elements that you used to
the three that you just mentioned, But we like to
go that one step that we present a report after
a six monthly period that gives you real detail as
to if we're employing a person into our team. It's
not just employing that person, this is the queer path

(04:45):
they've been given. This is the training Dell partake, this
is the impact they're making back on community because they've
been given an opportunity. We try to be a little
bit more specific around true impact to community. So we
all sort of we know that providing a job for
somebody is positive, but we try to be specific around
idea that providing a breadwinner into a family is also

(05:08):
providing opportunity for everybody around them. And it's really about
that kinship network that we like to focus on, so
it doesn't just stop with one job. We'd be specific
around the details around how that creates opportunity for everybody
around them as well.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
That's really quite powerful because you're sharing the narrative of
the impact back onto someone's life, and I'd be really
interested to see that over I guess a longitudinal time frame,
like you know, starting with someone that's maybe young, and
then you know where are they in five to ten
years time. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (05:41):
I think a good representation of that is the directors
that sit within our company groupable sort of grown together
and being nurtured by each other and all learning of
each other on a regular basis, so we all have
the same belief and value structure to how we approach business,
and we all sort of I mean our tagline within

(06:02):
four Hills is stronger together. Bit of a cliche, but
we really believe in it.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
Yeah, definitely. So what's the legacy piece for you?

Speaker 4 (06:10):
The legacy piece for myself is around that the idea
that family or those kinship circles actually make us really
sustainable businesses. So the more we entrench each other, the
more we pack each other, the more we support each
other within business, the stronger we can actually perform and
actually be operating at the same level as any other

(06:30):
tier one that you'll see out there.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
Yeah, definitely. If you had a message for my audience,
what would that be.

Speaker 4 (06:37):
Yeah, the message from myself would be always push those
boundaries and definitely have a crack. You never know when
you'll surprise yourself.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
Definitely. Well, thanks so much for coming and enjoying me today.
Really appreciate the ard other worries.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
Thanks for listening to today's episode. If you love it,
please share it on your socials with your mob, let's
help amplify as many Indigenous businesses as possible and get
everyone supporting each other.

Speaker 1 (07:03):
Thank you.