If there was one thing you think society should talk more about, what would it be?

“Do you really wanna take over the family business? Succession is not always going to work out how you think.”

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Cecily McGuckin is a trailblazer. As the first and only female CEO in Australia’s steel distribution industry, she is passionate about driving change in her industry and her family owned business, Queensland Sheet and Steel (QSS).

Cecily began her career in finance but quickly stumbled upon an area she enjoyed so much more - construction development management. She cut her construction teeth at leading companies like Suncorp and Mirvac, where she gained a wealth of experience in the day-to-day running of big business and the delivery of large scale projects, before then joining the family business her father started 33 years ago. 

No one was more surprised than Cecily when her father asked her to take over running the family business. A business he had built up from scratch at a time when the steel industry was no place for a woman. “Woman don’t work here, and they never will” were words Cecily’s father told her growing up…and yet, today Cec has been the CEO of QSS coming up six years. And whilst she’s proven her Dad wrong - that many woman work at QSS today - Cec is still the only female CEO in the wholesale sheet distribution business in Australia

I’ve known Cec for quite a while and she’s a gun. Incredibly resiliant (as you’ll hear), she’s a problem solver and out of the box thinker. As a woman in a man’s world she has needed to prove herself time and time again. Not just to her peers, customers and her staff, but to her father who started the business from nothing and he’s struggled letting it go as it really is his third child. Cec is a down to earth, straight-shooter and I know you’ll love this conversation as much as I enjoyed having her on the show. 

For more information about Cecily, check out these places;-

Instagram: @cec_mcguckin

Website: qss.net.au

Linkedin: Cecily McGuckin

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