Alternative success mapped out

It has been a recurring theme of mine that Western Australia does a lot more than just dig things up and ship them overseas.

Naturally, resources dominate the landscape, given some of the most mineral and gas rich provinces on the planet sit within our borders.

Many people view this as some sort of Achilles heel, that being endowed with such wealth means we are lazy and squander other opportunities.

To me this is not just pessimistic, it is wrong.

Despite being a state of just 2.5 million people, isolated on one edge of a sparsely populated continent, we do a lot more than simply exploit the vast wealth on our doorstep.

I think we do plenty of other things very successfully, they just get little attention because the overall impact is small compared to the jobs and direct fortunes created by resources.

One fascinating example is the world of mapping.

WA business people have been leaders in this field as early adopters and inventors of technology to make the understanding of our world, geospatially, much easier.

My colleague Mark Beyer documented this in his article last year entitled ‘Soaring on demand for high-res images’, which shows the extraordinary continuation of creativity in this sector since the late 1980s.

It is also worth noting that mapping is a rather old-school term, with the descriptor ‘geospatial’ much more inclusive of technologies that do more than just place a marker on a map.

With the ability to collect gigantic amounts of data and process it, ‘mapping’ now uses imagery and graphics to represent physical infrastructure in three dimensions as much as it does subterranean geological formations.

The value this creates by helping users operate more efficiently can occasionally be seen through the sales of various listed companies, both of their products and, in some cases, the company itself.

We have seen that last month with the $1 billion takeover bid for Perth-founded mapping business Nearmap, which was supported by directors of the firm.

As we reported, it will make a few people rich, including former chairman Ross Norgard and chief executive Rob Newman.

If the bid by US private equity firm Thoma Bravo wins over the rest of the shareholders, Mr Norgard will have a $52 million payday and Mr Newman will receive more than $22.1 million for his hard work.

Both have effectively been at it from the start.

Mr Newman was a student when he devised telecommunications technology and co-founded QPSX Communications.

That company listed (with Mr Norgard as a major backer), then became listed tech investment firm ipernica, which ultimately led to the purchase of Nearmap and the renaming of the business in 2008.

Mr Newman later was founding chief executive of US-based Atmosphere Networks, before coming back to Australia and ending up as chief of Nearmap.

As Beyer points out in his article, Mr Newman and Mr Norgard were not on their own.

Even the estate of Graham Griffiths, one of the drivers of the early days of the business, still had a stake worth around $4 million, according to the most recent annual report.

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Another firm in the same broad field with which Mr Newman has been involved is Pointerra.

He held almost 1 per cent of the company, according to its last annual report, worth more than $1 million at current prices.

Again, there are others who have done well and a few who have done better.

For instance, Pointerra chief technology officer Shane Douglas’s private company, Cartovista, was the biggest shareholder in Pointerra, according to its annual report last year, with a 13 per cent stake worth almost $20 million.

Managing director Ian Olson has a stake valued at more than $10 million.

In any other city of Perth’s size, these would be celebrated fortunes that would be written into folklore.

These people would be pointed out as they walked down the street.

In this town they go largely unnoticed and, unfortunately, ignored by those who prefer to think we don’t do anything here.