CEO Sleepout raising funds and awareness

MIKE Young sits at the head of one of Western Australia’s fastest growing iron ore producers; he spends much of his time based in a Perth office and is considered one of the state’s prominent businessmen. 

No doubt the BC Iron chief executive enjoys many creature comforts afforded by such success.

But his life is worlds apart from the homelessness his older brother, Skip, experienced as a result of drugs and crime.

Mr Young recently discovered that his estranged brother’s lifestyle had led him to living on the streets of Edmonton, Canada, where temperatures can drop to -50 degrees Celsius.

Having a crack addict in the family isn’t generally something many would publicise, but it’s given Mr Young the motivation to ditch his comfortable lifestyle and sleep rough in the middle of winter – he’s one of more than 110 successful business people taking part in the 2012 Vinnies CEO Sleepout.

The event, taking place tonight (Thursday June 21), involves some of the state’s highest ranking business people spending a night on only a sheet of cardboard at the WACA Ground in a bid to raise funds for the St Vincent de Paul Society.

Mr Young has a goal to raise more than $15,000, but told WA Business News raising awareness was even more important.

“By and large, if a person passes a homeless person on the street, if you were to ask them 30 seconds later if they saw the homeless person, they might not have,” Mr Young said.

“The one thing people don’t get is that we’re going to do this for one night, but those people that are homeless; not only do they not have a roof over their head, but they just have a deep despair and profound hopelessness.” 

More than $600,000 was raised during last year’s CEO sleep-out, in which 107 CEOs took part. 

At time of printing, Mr Young had raised $16,700, followed closely by WA Business News’ Mark Pownall, sitting on $16,500 and still chasing his goal of $20,000.

Burswood chief executive Barry Felstead was in top spot with sponsorship amounting to $42,160.

St Vincent de Paul chief executive Mark Fitzpatrick said the response by local business leaders had been fantastic, but called on more people to invest in the futures of those less fortunate. More than 105,000 Australians are understood to be homeless every night, including 7,500 families.