Geoff Hateley was recognised for his 20 years' service to AME Systems.
ARARAT- AME Systems boasts a number of staff who have clocked over the 20 year milestone and recently Geoff Hateley joined this elite group.
Staff members Darren Bahl, Greg Hinchliffe, Darryl (Jack) Jeffery, Jan Hitchcock and Diane Traynor are part of the inaugural 20 year brigade.
Mr Hateley started with AME Systems as a trainee in 1992 and is currently the customer relations manager. His role is to ensure that the company's major customer base is effectively and professionally managed.
Working across a number of departments over the years Mr Hateley has acquired a broad knowledge of all aspects of the business. During the past five years he has gained much experience in sales prior to taking on the new role some two years ago.
Today, Mr Hateley works closely with customers to identify potential new projects and communicates this back to the team so the company can assess if they are viable and what impact this would have on the business.
In presenting Mr Hateley with his service award including a gold watch, managing director Peter Carthew said Mr Hateley is a very motivated staff member.
"He sets his goals high and works at achieving personal targets," Mr Carthew said.
"From day one as a trainee to now, the customer relations manager, he is the guy who does the cheek to cheek dancing with all our major customers ensuring that they are effectively and professionally managed and serviced.
" This is a seriously important role.
"When he stepped into sales in 1999 he discovered early satisfying the customer and resolving issues from a sales perspective was a challenging task. He learnt quickly the skills of negotiation and developed the foot skills of playing the game between the home-side and the customer base.
"Today Geoff is the link between customers and the various internal teams at AME Systems on a daily basis and goes about his duties assessing viability and impact of opportunities, and situations with an eye on keeping the operation's pipeline filled. I am sure Geoff is proud of his part evolving strong relationships in our industry and the benefit that has been to our team."
The second annual service awards were presented at the end of year Best Practice Luncheon held in December and other than Mr Hateley's special milestone, awards were presented for five, 10 and 15 years. The awards introduced in 2011 have given the company the opportunity to recognise the value of staff that over many years have played an integral role in the longevity of the business. In total 39 staff were recognised and presented with specially struck milestone badges and certificates, including staff from the company's Kilsyth facility in Melbourne.
