Seizing the opportunity - Dr Dick Porter [DCom '14]

Great opportunities don't come everyday, but Dick Porter, the co-founder of STA Travel and Director of STA Travel Group has been taking every opportunity for the last 40 years in the UK. A self proclaimed “average student” at UWA, Dick embarked on a trip to the UK and has remained there ever since. By 1976, suffering from the huge oil shock flowing from the 1973 ‘Yom Kippur’ War, much of the European travel industry had failed or required government subsidy to continue. Seizing the opportunity, Dick co-founded STA Travel in 1979, which has continued to advise young people on holidays and adventures abroad, offering a unique range of flights, accommodation, tours and expeditions in 90 countries. Today, STA Travel has more than 400 branches worldwide and sends more than six million passengers away each year.

In this interview Dick shares how a freak accident during university changed the trajectory of his career, what a business leader looks like, the impact of mentoring and the alumni network in the UK, and the importance for students and alumni to travel.