privacy and green views, but allow the families to stay close. It all fits so neatly you can picture Emma and Melanie planning all this as young girls while their father established his respected family business. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. While they have fond memories of exploring display homes and building sites as children, Emma, now 40, and Melanie, 38, never for a moment imagined themselves in the business. Melanie was musical as a child, studying piano and violin, while Emma loved her sport and played tennis and basketball. Emma completed a La Trobe University arts degree before becoming Jellis Craig’s first female sales agent in the early 1990s. A people person, she “loved it”. She was, and still is, a good listener, which she sees as crucial to the sales process. An MBA degree completed in 2005 sharpened her business focus. In the mid-1990s Emma and her future husband worked in London, he as an accountant and she with British Telecom’s US sales team, “basically selling minutes around the world”. Melanie studied chemical engineering at Melbourne University, one of only five women among 150 men. She then spent five years working in the chemical engineering and batching department at ACI’s bottle manufacturing plant in Spotswood, which produced 4000 bottles a minute. The fast-paced, potentially dangerous work environment was a baptism of fire into the workforce, and she loved it. “It was the best introduction to working life that I could have ever had,” she says. Melanie then worked for GE Plastics in raw materials, purchasing and inventory. At that stage she and Emma still had no plans to work with their father. “We never thought we’d join the business,” Emma says. Both attribute their independence to their days at Preshil, an independent private school in Kew that prides itself on teaching students to develop their individual personalities. Students are encouraged to
N TIOD C U TR NCE 2013 S E N IL CO OMM N APR C IO ET PL M CO
In charge: Melanie (left) and Emma Fasham learnt the business from the ground up. (Darrian traynor)
follow their own path and develop as individuals. earned registration as a domestic builder in her own Each night the family, including mother Christine, right. She now chairs the Master Builders’ Association dined together and discussed their days. “We were of Victoria housing committee and in 2010 became the encouraged from an early age to develop independent first woman in 134 years appointed to the MBAV board. interests,” says Melanie, who spent her final three school Fasham Johnson prides itself on “designing and years at MLC for its music opportunities. constructing individual homes for individual clients”. Trevor, an accountant, created Fasham Johnson when “We’re unusual in that ‘individual’ is everything we still in his 20s. A lifelong advocate of contemporary do,” Emma says. design, he was a proponent of environmentally sensitive Fasham’s two designers, Brian Stacey, who has worked housing long before it became fashionable. Christine with Trevor since the company’s early days, and Rodney worked in the business for 35 years. Smith, are passionate advocates and exponents “She stopped working when we had our of the company’s core design philosophies. children and she spends a couple of days with Foremost among these is an absolute belief that Agents are our boys each week,” Emma says. “Mum’s path of the sun across a site is the single quick to flag the interest is interior design and to this day most important factor in designing a home. “designed by she remains actively involved in the interior Fasham homes are distinctive and sought design of our display houses.” after, with real-estate agents across Melbourne Fasham” Emma came home in 1999, and it wasn’t until quick to flag “designed by Fasham” on sales after her return that Trevor raised the possibility boards. The company builds in all Melbourne of her and Melanie joining the company. The time was suburbs but is particularly prominent in the leafy east, also right for Melanie, who had been travelling a lot for the Mornington and Bellarine peninsulas, townships work and was ready to settle. in the Yarra Ranges and in the rural communities of Emma and Melanie joined the company in 2003 Woodend and Gisborne. and 2004 respectively, learning about the business Community involvement is also important to the by working in key roles from the ground up. Today Fasham family. Melanie is president of the Camberwell they jointly manage Fasham Johnson, with Emma Multiple Birth Association and Emma works with Kids responsible for sales, pre-construction and design. Under Cover, which supports young people at risk of Melanie handles estimating, finance and construction. becoming homeless by building studios to house young Both agree their previous life experiences were a people and providing educational scholarships. bonus. “We think it’s definitely added to the business Having two women in charge of a building business and added to our lives,” Emma says. is still unusual, but poses no problems. As Emma puts Trevor has retired from day-to-day involvement in the it, clients judge the business on its merits and appreciate company but retains a keen interest in the downsizing its family values. “It’s a family company and people feel empty-nester sector. With more than 40 years’ they’re buying into that family ethos too. We’re creating experience, he is an invaluable source of wisdom and homes for families and we’re a family doing it.” advice to his daughters, even as they establish their own These sisters really are doing it for themselves. \ ccritchley@theweeklyreview.com.au identities in the male-dominated building industry. In preparation for joining the company, Melanie » www.fasham.com.au completed a diploma of building in 2007 and later
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march 21, 2012 \ The weekly review 33