Your Memories
From the moment Chris & I met, it felt like we’d been friends for many years. His genuine care and interest in the people in his life was one of his best traits. Chris and I shared a lot of similar interests and had a mutual respect for each other. Chris was one of the investors in my first business which helped it to be what it is today.
We had many great moments together in work and social engagements and I will cherish these times. I will miss his hugs and the prickly beard kisses.
He was a smart guy. I had many conversations with him and never left without finding them both interesting and educational.
And I have no doubt that Penny, Thomas and Louisa were a blessing, and enriched his life in a manner beyond his expectations.
A beautiful man and will be sadly missed. Our thoughts are with Penny, children and all the family.
I got my break in the IT industry through Hunterlink, so suffice to say, my life and career could’ve turned out very differently if it wasn’t for Chris. Even though by the time I have joined Hunterlink, Chris has already moved on to Ipera, but he was more than happy to have a smoke and crack a joke with the nobody from upstairs, a truly down to earth guy and will be missed.
RIP Chris. My deepest condolences to his family.
Our first connection with Chris was in Dec 2018. We were ‘add ons’ to a group of parents that bid on an amazing adventure on the lake thru the CPPS Trivia night. Chris & Penny generously donated a day on the lake onboard Leopard 48. Jack from the Goods donated the food. We boarded this amazing boat at Toronto Wharf. Chris was very casual and welcoming. I was oblivious he was the owner. The day was spectacular. Chris zoomed around in the inflatable boat & had a relaxing lunch on the back side of Wangi followed by a swim. Chris was fun, easy to chat with & up for a good laugh. He turned very serious when the storm hit but was calm, in control & made the day very, very memorable. I was amazed that a local family had donated such an amazing & generous prize to raise money for their kids local school.
Our kids weren’t at the school then, but in 2019 we had the pleasure to meet Penny, Thomas & Louisa when we enrolled our children at CPPS & Chloe & Blake were in the same years as Thomas & Louisa. Chris & Penny were active on the P&C and had great passion, that’s where I saw Chris’ ability to think outside the square, the Wizard of Oz tickets & just trying many, many different tactics to get the school moving forward. My kids have a funny story of one afternoon when Chris was picking his kids up from school I was chatting with him & a dog went past Chloe & Blake were petrified of the dog and jumped in Chris Ferrari to hide, the neighbour walked past he says the smile on the kids face was priceless ‘hiding in the Ferrari’ Chris & I continued to chat & laugh.
Thru lockdown while the Deere’s were living at Rathmines we kayaked across from Coal Point to meet up (at a social distance) and have a lakeside, sunshine catch up. When restrictions were still around after Covid lockdown Craig reached out to Chris to hire his Yacht to celebrate his 40th in 2020. Chris was excited to make the day fabulous for Craig & others, the day was spectacular. Cruising, eating, drinking, swimming, jumping off the top into the water. The day on the lake & evening back at our place was fabulous & the generous heart that Chris & Penny have, has certainly made for beautiful memories to be created. Conversation with Chris and Penny always left me smiling & in awe of how his brain worked. I loved hearing of different ventures or challenges he working through, from work to the house & the pool-every conversation was intriguing.
Hi Penny, Thomas, and Louisa, Just thought I’d share a few memories of Chris I had – which you may not be aware of – in the hope may be it may of some comfort at this difficult time. I first met Chris back in 2002, when I returned from working in IT start-ups in Dublin (Ireland). I heard about this internet pioneer, here in my home town of Newcastle – and I just had to meet him…So I basically sent him an intro email to Ipera – and we ended up having a coffee. I was working as an IT consultant for an accounting business and Ipera were a company helping us sort out their IT services situation. I’d returned from a rather difficult period – with the Dot Com crash affecting the business I was in over in Europe .. And I returned to my home town very much despondent with the industry – and my place in it – at that point in my life.
Meeting Chris, at that time, was particularly uplifting for me. We ended up, going out a bit socially at that time, as he was at the end of his first marriage. We were the same age – same industry – and in Newcastle – when a lot of people in their early 30s have settled down .. in short, our friendship gave me hope and inspiration, when I needed it most. We both ended up getting married a bit later in life – and I have a kid of a similar age to yours. After I returned to Sydney in 2004, but we kept in touch from time to time, usually to discuss various IT scheme’s I’d dreamt up .. And he had a great way of pouring cold water on most of my ideas – in a nice way. He gave me a tour of his Steel River facility around 2011-2012 . I gave him a tour of a factory my father had purchased in Hunter Street – that I was thinking might be useful as a Data Centre .. We had numerous discussions about various things during the CountryTell adventure and more recently (in July) I came up to discuss some new AI thing we’re working on with one of the universities in Sydney. He was always open and happy to share his experiences with me, and everyone I know had nothing but good things to say about him. I wish we had a chance to spend more time together, for our families to meet – and to say a proper good bye .. unfortunately our families never got the chance to meet but if you’d ever like to – please let me know. I understand you may know some of my family members already as it turns out. My extended family grew up around Toronto area. My first cousin (Michelle Green nee Nelson) has children that I think went to the same school as your kids. I knew Nathan and Michelle were connected to Chris – through Facebook .. and we caught up at the memorial the other day.
From me and my family – I wish you every comfort at this difficult time.
I met Chris while I was managing a popular bar in Newcastle CBD. It was around the time Chris was selling his integration business and breaking off the infrastructure assets of Ipera. He was putting himself under a lot of pressure to get the sale done and as such would relieve his stress 4 or 5 nights a week at the bar.
Chris at the time was in you would say a “fun”, but volatile relationship which would often be on full display on the otherwise quiet nights at the bar. These displays consisted mainly of all out screaming matches usually provoked by his then partner. One such occasion she threw a glass of red wine in his face after accusing him of something ridiculous as she often did. He approached the bar forlorn for another drink as she stormed out. I said to him “Mate, I think we are going to need a safety word! That woman is out of control” We both laughed and together with the common interests of whiskey and red wine a lifetime friendship was born.
As I get to know this random guy who wears this horribly dated black leather jacket and a lunatic girlfriend I discover through conversation, that he owns an IT company. At the time I was enrolled at university with my friend Anthony in Information Science. I will preface that by highlighting we may have been enrolled but not a lot of studying was happening.
A few months later and after fully understanding who Chris was, we convinced him (over many beers) that he should give us both jobs. Chris had just hired Julie as the GM of the company and didn’t want to undermine her. He said we would have to interview with Julie. The interview consisted of Julie asking a number of questions as you would expect, related to that of the IT field. After about 10 minutes of aloof answers she asked me “what would you say you actually know about the IT industry? I said “Julie it is safe to assume I know nothing.” Anthony was offered a position.
I didn’t get the job that day but fast forward 6 months with the sale of the integration business and all of the staffing assets going with it, Chirs employed me as the Operations Manager of Ipera. “Jobs for the boys” We had become the best of mates.
The idea was I would start by driving sales in technologies that no one at that stage had ever heard of, certainly not me. He used words like ‘Cloud’ and Saas”. This was circa 2004. That was all good in theory and I set out to learn what I could. One thing that hamstrung me from the start was I never had a price list to go off. He was working on it. I worked for Chris for nearly 3 years and Im still waiting on that pricelist. We didn’t sell much over those couple of years. We didn’t have to as Chris was already working with all tier 1 enterprises in the region as we built out Newcastles first fibre optic network. What I did find myself doing was project managing fibre asset builds and managing data center assets. None of which I was qualified for. According to Chris ‘any idiot could do it’…
I was also positioned as the social coordinator for Ipera. At this stage we had a couple more employees and we shared space with Forythes. It was my job under Chris instruction from about Wednesday to identify who was coming out to party on Friday…and Saturday.
Chris offered services with 99.999% SLA’s and was responsible for ‘always on’ communications for tier 1 enterprises. He was the epitome of success and if you were dealing with PacNet, Hunterlink or Ipera you were really dealing with Chris. But Chris needed to offset that pressure. Chris like all of us was just a nerdy kid at heart. He got a lot of validation from his business’ but he also needed validation from his friendships and Chris loved his friends. He would make anyone comfortable in a social setting. In fact, you were coming long for the ride. Chris was dealing with CEO’s during the day and partying with level 1 help desk operators and bartenders by night. Chris in the 2000’s was really good at a bender. Needless to say the Monday horrors were bad and Tuesday was terrible.
It was at this time Chris was coined, “The Black Cloud” within the ranks because to be quite frank, Chris could be ‘difficult’. Chris was always the smartest person in the room but what I would later realise is Chris also had an incredible eye for talent. I think of all of the employees I saw come through Hunterlink, Ipera and so on and I now see these same people as industry leaders not only locally to Newcastle but internationally. I know a lot of people can attribute their early and ongoing success to Chris. He could be bloody difficult but he drove a standard that few others knew existed in the early days of ‘the internet’. I left Ipera moving to Sydney and reentered the hospitality arena.
A few years in Chris quietly financed my first bar in Surry Hills. I was discussing with him my finance options and he stopped me short and put the offer on the table. He didn’t put terms down or anything else. When I returned to fulfill my obligation he hugged me and simply told me to “put it into the next one”. The last few years I have seen Chris more focused on his home and family life. A couple of years ago he called me for advice asking me on a phone call “how do you build a commercial kitchen” as he had taken on a project for the school P&T association. I don’t know if the school realized who they had engaged to drive the project. A titan of industry whos project managed some of the regions largest infrastructure builds. Needless to say during that phone call I told him ‘he wasn’t qualified’.
I take some comfort in knowing Chris spent more time in his final years closer to his family and children opposed to the workaholic lifestyle he lead at Ipera and Vocus. My lasting memories are of our kids and partners together on the water or enjoying a meal which was far removed from how we met. The red wine was always a constant theme though. My friendship with Chris was born outside of the workplace. I met a somewhat shy and sometimes insecure guy in a bad relationship. We shared some outrageous times and some successes. We shared the workplace as only friends can, chaotically. I saw him reconnect with the love of his life in Penny, I saw him have 2 beautiful children in Thomas and Louisa, I saw him build his career to the c-suite and beyond, I saw him build his dream home and sail his dream yacht. I saw him fail as a gardener and at general pool maintenance. Chris and I had an unlikely friendship. In theory it shouldn’t have worked as we came from two very different worlds. But Chris never made me feel less than what I was or am. In fact, he saw the best version of me and always spoke to it.
I always have and always will love him like a brother.
I’m so sorry to hear of Chris’s passing. I worked for him at Hunterlink starting in 1997. It was my first Digital Marketing job, and I will be forever grateful to him for giving me a chance and inventing a position for me, after my unsuccessful application to work on the phones as customer support. While I was at Hunterlink I learned about elegant web design and coding, about bringing innovative ideas to customers, about the courage it took to run a small business, and about how well he formed the team into a close-knit family.
Now, 26 years into my career, I still use the things I learned from him every day. I send love to his family and children, who should know that Chris lives on in the work and lives of all of us he mentored and taught.
Every occasion spent with Chris was a winner. Cruising the caravan park in the Tesla, building the biggest sand fort on the Eastern Seaboard, complaining about the state of the swimming pool or the condition of the wi fi, chopping carrots or smoking up the snags, cruising the lake … all of it was fantastic.
Our lives are the richer for having counted him a friend.
We managed to sneak in a U2 Joshua Tree concert in Sydney before Covid started. The rain didn’t dampen our spirits
A humble and exceptionally smart man. Grateful to have crossed his path.
I’m going to miss curiously investigating ideas with you Chris. Rest in peace.
In 1999, I was fortunate enough to get my first break in the IT industry, working for a guy called Chris at a fast growing ISP called Hunterlink – an extraordinary opportunity. Chris was so much more than a boss. He was a brilliant mind, a fearless business leader, a very generous person and a great mate. He came to my 21st, he came to my first house warming party – he was the coolest boss you could have and I was proud to work for one of the coolest tech companies around. Chris taught his staff so much about innovation, entrepreneurship, providing exceptional customer service and ultimately grit. One time he remarked “You’re just a developer” – “Just a developer!!??” I thought. It was a backhanded compliment with just the right amount of Chris Deere satire grin and I will never forget it. We worked on wacky, innovative projects like the “C++ ISAPI filter (aka ‘the filter’)” and the “Budde Generator”! It was bloody cool..
Chris was a great mentor to many of us and was instrumental in shaping our later trajectories. This mentorship continued life long well beyond my years working for Chris. I could always trust Chris for his frank, honest advice – the kind of advice you mightn’t necessarily like but needed to hear! Chris had a gift for telling it how it was, in a caring and supportive way – and he usually knew how to fix it too. A few years ago Chris met my wife Ali at the Hunterlink/Ipera ex staff boating day – a special day that we will never forget. I had chatted to Chris just 2 or 3 weeks prior to his death, he was helping me with another business problem and sent me a photo of him chilling out with his new puppy. He looked particularly happy and content. I couldn’t help feeling proud of him and glad to see he was enjoying his precious family so much and all that he had worked so hard for.
RIP Chris – you were a trail blazer that left the world a better place. Thanks for all you gave us. All our love to Penny, Thomas and Louisa from Aaron, Ali and Atticus. Aaron Clausen Junior Web Developer (Hunterlink) and Software Developer (ipera) 1999 – 2002
My first memories of Chris was when a business owner and customer of Computer Systems Australia asked if we could come check out what this young IT guy was doing in his very busy mail processing business. I took one of our most experienced technical engineers with me and Chris explained how each of the different servers were all running competing operating systems and how they all achieved what he had intended. Later the business owner took us out the back to ask our opinion on Chris. My tech guy said “I don’t have a clue what he’s doing (not quite the language he used), but he certainly knows what he is doing and just leave him alone!”.
Years later I had the privilege of working for Chris as his GM at Ipera. It would be fair to say that his staff idolised him. For a person to have been so successful at that point, at such a young age, was inspirational in itself. Chris was very humble, a loyal friend, amiable, likeable and a true leader with his non-acceptance of status quo when it came to technology. My only frustration with Chris was when he used to take some of the guys out for drinks on “school nights’ and they would be a bit ‘dusty’ the next day! He agreed to my request to stop that practice – sorry guys!
I knew how much he cared for Penny. I only wished I had known Chris as a father because I always sensed that he had the makings of being a great father and that his children would be very proud to call him Dad.
My twenties at Ipera were a whirlwind of joy and laughter. Ipera was a family, and you, Chris, were at the heart of it all. Your encouragement led me to start my first business, a debt I can never fully repay. Though you’re no longer with us, your spirit lives on in the stories we share and the lessons you taught. I’ll hold onto the memories and the profound impact you had on my life. I am forever grateful.
Chris was one of the first people I met at Uni. We were both doing a Bachelor of Information Science degree and pretty soon we had forged a lifelong friendship. We shared some amazing times together, both at Uni and socially, making memories that would last with us forever. Chris got his degree at his own pace, I don’t know if he particularly enjoyed the structured side of Uni as he was always so busy pursuing a new idea whether it was building and selling PCs, to cresting Newcastle’s first internet provider. Chris was a very generous guy, he was always the first to buy a round of drinks and gave many people an opportunity in life.
Rest well, Chris.
Chris was a brilliant man but most of all he was one of my most valued mentors and friends. He hired me at Ipera when I was 20 years old and fresh out of Darwin having just moved to Newcastle. I would not be the person I am today without his influence in how to be driven, focused, robust, loyal and recognise that everyone has a skill and something to bring to the table. He never talked about money and what he had, he was most excited when talking about technology and his family. He valued his relationships and he built incredible teams not just businesses and my Ipera crew will always be family to me. I never heard him say “that’s too hard” or “what if we fail”, if he thought it could be a success he just had a go. He was direct but you always knew where you stood and he would rather offend you with brutal honesty than see you fail or financially hurt, it’s a rare quality to find in a person. Chris, I will miss you. Your life was cut unexpectedly short but your memory will live on.
Penny, Thomas and Louisa I am deeply sorry for your loss and my thoughts are with you.
I was very impressed with Chris. Although I was there to work on his Catamaran, we talked about many different subjects. Inspite of the fact that he was very successful in business, he came across to me as very respectful, open minded, and a great family man. I saw him with his children on a number of occasions, and i couldn’t help but notice what a wonderful father he was to his children. He seemed so patient with them. My heart feels sick that they lost such a devoted father at such a young age 😥
I met Chris a number of times during his work with Unify Ventures and at Hunter link. I was impressed by his intelligence and wit. What a wonderful guy taken way too soon.. Thoughts go out to the family.
I think I met Chris three times while working with Penny. I didn’t need any longer to know him; smart, discerning, generous, considerate and kind.
I worked with Chris at Hunterlink & Ipera. I was with Digital/Compaq/HP. Always professional, enjoyed a laugh and very a good man. He built a wonderful organisation that helped businesses thrive in the early internet. Helped his customers and knew the value of his staff.