He’s a one-man recession buster. Honestly, if you could package up Malcolm May and export him, much of the world’s economic pessimism could dissipate in a day.

The inspirational Balco chief is not listening to gloomy news and dire predictions. He’s listening to his business advisers and his customers.

When he tells you he believes primary producers can lead Australia out of recession, you are listening to a man who not only espouses everything positive about being in business but also has a large stake in making that prediction a reality.

When he uses terms like quality assurance and customer service he makes them sound interesting. Not only did he invent a whole lot of the quality assurance for hay exporting, he has a self-deprecating anecdote for every occasion.

His tales of promoting and packaging hay for his Japanese customers had the breakfast table in stitches at the Queenie last week.

And his business generosity is legendary. Not only is he sharing many of the secrets of his success when he speaks to Kangaroo Island business people, he is doing it for nothing more than a free meal.

It can be hard to quantify the value of attending a networking event, taking time out of a busy day or getting up an hour earlier for such an occasion.

No one who attended Mr May’s presentation on Friday morning would have doubted its value.

Congratulations to the development board for organising the event and we look forward to more.

Islander, Thursday 2 April 2009