Not everyone transforms the business they go into but journalist-turned-news executive Lee Casey did that to an extraordinary degree.
In December 2000, Telecom New Zealand completed a $NZ2 billion takeover of AAPT, the third-biggest telecommunications company in Australia.
AAPT had been conceived a little over a decade earlier when Mr Casey, then CEO of AAP, and some senior executives, sketched out the idea for a new telecommunications and data company that could challenge the national carrier, Telecom (now Telstra).
Editor-in-chief to Mr Casey from 1982 to 1990, Barry Wheeler, tells a story of how the AAP board reacted when presented with the AAPT proposal.
"One of them said 'you're going for the pot with a pair of twos', and we did," Mr Wheeler said.
"He had nerves of steel."
Mr Wheeler, who oversaw the development of AAPT from 1990, said Mr Casey leaves two great business legacies: transforming AAP into a true national news agency and creating AAPT.
"In my experience he was always the smartest guy in the room," Mr Wheeler said.
Mr Casey started as a cadet journalist at the former Australian United Press in Melbourne in 1954 and went on to work at the Telegraph in Brisbane, the ABC and Brisbane TV station BTQ7 before heading overseas.
He worked with NBC International in Lagos, and with news agency Reuters in London, Hong Kong, and Tokyo before taking on the role of managing director for North America.
He returned to Australia in 1975 and took over as general manager of AAP in 1977, progressing to CEO in 1983.
AAP CEO Bruce Davidson said Mr Casey is remembered as one of AAP's most successful CEOs.
"In a tenure that spanned 22 years, Lee took advantage of the new technologies of the time to modernise the way in which the agency created and delivered content," Mr Davidson said.
"But perhaps Lee's most enduring legacy was the establishment of AAPT. Launching a telecommunications operation was a brave move, and one that ultimately proved a financial success by returning a massive windfall to AAP's shareholders."
Some of Mr Casey's ventures were community-focused rather than purely corporate.
Former executive director David Jensen created the AAP Mawson's Huts Foundation, which in 1997 sent an expedition to Antarctica to carry out much-needed conservation work on huts built on the icy continent in 1911 by explorer Sir Douglas Mawson.
Mr Jensen describes walking into Mr Casey's office and telling the CEO that AAP was going to save Mawson's huts.
"He didn't look up from his desk, he just said 'yes David, that's right', so I went ahead and did it," Mr Jensen said.
Mr Casey became chairman in 1995, becoming the first person to hold the dual title of chairman and CEO and continuing until his retirement in 1999.
AAP editor-in-chief from 1996 to 2003 Tony Vermeer said Mr Casey had great vision and energy to match.
"He was one of those far-reaching CEOs who came up with ideas and infected everyone with the enthusiasm to get things done," he said.
Away from the office, Mr Casey was a doting family man to his wife, Chris, and daughters Leah and Catherine, and an accomplished tennis player on the international amateur seniors circuit.
After his retirement, he and Chris moved to Killcare on the NSW Central Coast, where he was deeply involved in the local community.
Daughter Catherine said her father was active in the cultural life of the region where he lived, supporting up and coming singers and musicians.
There was a collaboration with John Bell, famed founder of the Bell Shakespeare theatre company and Central Coast resident, on a local performance and Mr Casey compiled a book on the region's history.
Mr Casey died last week aged 78.
He is survived by his wife and daughters, his son-in-law Ashley and grandchildren Jordan, Benjamin and Amelie.
