NEW MISSION AWARD FINALIST
Protegas Australia is a trusted specialist intelligence capability provider for government and the commercial sector. It supports Australia’s goal for a sovereign Defence and national security industry with the capability, readiness and resilience to help meet Australia’s needs.
Protegas Australia is an independent, veteran-owned, Australian-owned company, over 70% of it’s employees are veterans.
Meet Grant
When Grant Joy realised he was a finalist in The King’s Trust Beyond Service Awards, he was a little shocked.
The Managing Director and Co-Founder of Protegas Australia only found out he’d been nominated for the New Mission Award when he received an email to say he a finalist.
But while he was surprised, he was also pretty chuffed, being well aware of the work The King’s Trust does with entrepreneurial veterans and defence spouses.
“It’s amazing company to be in,” he said.
“And I am obviously excited and really proud to represent our company and everything our team has done.”
Grant, an Australian Army veteran with 16 years’ experience serving in intelligence, founded Protegas Australia with Jerome Mullan and Nicholas Gould in July 2020.
The company offers intelligence professional services to industry and the public sector.
“Typically, (our work) involves the collection of information, analysising that information and turning it into advice for a client,” Grant said.
“We do intel and we stick within that lane.”
The idea for Protegas Australia came from a catchup Grant had with Jerome and Nicholas, who all served in the Australian Defence Force.
“The three of us lamented on the fact that while we were in the service, there just weren't enough people,” he said.
“And when intelligence specialists left the ADF, they often went other sectors.
“We then also looked at the fact that there was no company (in Australia) specifically focusing on intelligence services.”
The trio began to build out the concept of Protegas and analysed the need for such a company within the region.
“We found all these little pockets of intelligence out there that didn't necessarily have the resourcing to do what they needed to do,” Grant said.
“It's not just Defence and the big government agencies that do intel.
“Emergency response, biosecurity and law enforcement all have massive intel requirements.”
Once the three founders got Protegas Australia started, they were faced with their first big hurdles—government procurement processes and selling potential clients on a concept new to Australia.
“The challenge was getting our clients comfortable and familiar with someone who can speak their language and knows what they're after,” Grant said.
Within seven months, Protegas Australia went from chasing clients to having a client seek them out for first the time.
Today, Protegas Australia has 30 staff between Brisbane and Canberra, with veterans accounting for about 70 per cent of employees.
Grant said veterans tended to align well with the company’s values and ticked key boxes in terms of initiative and the abilities to think, plan and communicate.
“The thing that we brought across ourselves from Defence as co-founders of the business, is that sense of purpose towards supporting Australia's mission,” he said.
“So, regardless of where people have come from … one thing that we really dig into is making sure they've got that sense of purpose.”
Grant said Protegas Australia has brought on a fourth director, Arran Hassell, and aimed to continue building the company based on its values and mission to stay in its lane.
“We've always had very deliberate and sustainable growth plans and the key reason for that is, ultimately, we're a mum and dad company,” he said.
“We don't necessarily see ourselves being a world leader in our services, but we aspire to be a leader in our region.”
