Adrian Tembel is a prominent South Australian lawyer and businessman and is an economics and honours law graduate of the University of Adelaide. He began practising corporate and technology law at Thomson Geer in 1993, became a Partner of Thomson Geer in 1997, and went on to become Chief Executive Partner in 2009 and held the position ever since. 

When operating as a full-time lawyer Adrian specialized in the Corporate and Technology space and had the opportunity to serve on some amazing pieces of work, one name was with one of the greatest drivers in Formula One, Ayton Senna's Merchandising team. 

Adrian’s focus is now on leading Thomson Geer, whereas Chief Executive Partner, he has grown the Adelaide headquartered Thomson Geer to a major Australian Law firm with annual revenue close to $200m.  

At the time of the podcast, Thomson Geer is ranked 10th largest law firm by partner number, 22nd in South Australia's top private companies and rose 32 places in the 2019/2020 Australia's top 500 private companies ranking, and now has offices all across Australia in Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth. 

Adrian is an Adviser to the Premier of South Australia, Steven Marshall, and in 2018, Adrian was appointed as a Commissioner of the South Australian Productivity Commission and went on to become Chair of this commission in July 2021, Adrian,  and further to this he also has time to serve as a Director of the Menzies Research Centre. 

In this episode,  Adrian and I touch on his journey from being a full-time lawyer to becoming the Chief Executive Partner at Thomson Geer, and as a very proud South Australian, he provides his insights into how we can build and make South Australia better by focusing on building a world-class Research and Development platform. 

 I loved the modesty coming from Adrian in this podcast, where he describes himself as an 'insecure' and 'not very talented' person, but was able to share with us that through hard work and persistence, it is possible to achieve really great things.  

We also deep-dived into his thoughts around: 

His journey and how he ended up in the legal world 

• How the impending liquidation of the company led him to become the Chief Executive Partner 
• The strategy and the mindset that turned the around companies financial position 
• His learnings and experience through this process  
• His thoughts on the role CEO's play in the company culture 
• How he manages his time. 
• His role as an adviser to Premier Steven Marshall 
• And provides some amazing advice for up and coming CEO's 

Where to find Adrian Tembel:

• Thomson Geer

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Books  and podcasts mentioned on this episode:

Robert Menzies - The Art of Politics - By: Troy Bramston