Great Scot September 2019 Great Scot 157_September 2019_ONLINE | Page 66

Foundation
Carl Hoffmann – achieving
outcomes through
leadership, trust and
persuasion
CARL HOFFMANN IN HIS MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY DAYS; AND IN 1950,
WEARING HIS SCOTCH CADET UNIFORM
Staring as a budding junior engineer at Mount Isa
Mines back in the 1950s, and 40 years later becoming
the managing director of a huge German smelter,
Carl Hoffmann (‘51) never shirked from meeting and
overcoming the many challenges he faced. In an interview
in 1999, after he had retired, Carl said his biggest
challenges were ‘always to do with people ... the technical
challenges could always be solved’.
He said: ‘You have to achieve the outcomes through
leadership and persuasion. You can’t expect to achieve
lasting change through force. It is always a matter of trust
and explanation. You must have that bit of leadership that
shows you are confident you can achieve new ways of
doing things, and bring the staff, workforce and colleagues
along with you.’
Carl was born on 22 July 1934, and attended Scotch
from 1945 to 1951. At school he focused on science and
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Great Scot Number 157 – September 2019
mathematics subjects – with an eye to a future engineering
career – while also enjoying cricket, football, swimming,
debating and music. He was a member of the Swimming
team in 1947, 1948 and 1950, and a member of the
Cadets’ Quarter Guard in 1949.
In 1952 he began an engineering degree, and he
describes his university days as ‘great and exciting times’.
He studied hard, but still found time for football, rugby,
playing piano and joining the Art Society of Victoria. He
was called up for national service, but that gave him no
hardship – he enjoyed his time in the army.
With his degree completed and national service
duties behind him, Carl was offered a position as a junior
engineer at Mount Isa Mines, and he rapidly progressed
through the company. In the early 1960s he was awarded
a scholarship to study business administration at Stanford
University, and from that time onwards, Carl moved into
the administrative side of the business.
He became general manager of the company’s
joint ventures in Australia and overseas, which brought
together his experience of the previous 20 years in terms
of managing people and money, and understanding the
technological side of the mining business.
In 1983 Carl studied international business
administration at Harvard University in the USA, and he
was subsequently appointed General Manager, Europe, for
Mount Isa Mines, based in London.
Nearing the end of his career, Carl was promoted
to Managing Director of a company Mount Isa Mines
had acquired in Germany, a demanding position which
required him to manage a business in a foreign country, in
a foreign language, acting under foreign laws.
In retirement, Carl became chairman of the Queensland
Horticulture Institute, and also served on the board of
Brisbane Markets Ltd. He and his second wife, Gisela,
lived in Germany from 2005 until 2016, and then moved to
Buderim on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Carl now lives
in an aged care home at Peregian Springs, a Sunshine
Coast suburb. He has two sons from his first marriage.
In appreciation of the excellent education Scotch had
provided for him, Carl has decided to make a bequest of
$12,500 to the School.