The name’s Lindgren, Ian Lindgren. Photo: James Coleman.
Ian Lindgren didn’t know if he’d ever be able to drive again.
For someone who grew up in Wagga with a father who collected vintage cars and can’t remember a time when he didn’t love cars, this was a massive blow.
In 2000, Ian was chief of the IT division of the Australian Defence Force, posted to Rome but spending a lot of his time travelling between Israel and Egypt in the peacekeeper force.
He’d never envisioned anything other than a career in the army.
But it was on one of these trips that he accidently swallowed a parasite, “while having a shower probably”.
It left his body so wracked with pain, he couldn’t wear his uniform, let alone slip on a pair of jeans or sit down.
“I had nerve pain from my hips to my hair,” he says.
“It was enough to make a bloke cry … and you lose most of your friends because they don’t understand you can’t come out and see them because you can’t sit down.”
Only three years ago did it finally end, thanks to infusions he takes every six weeks.
“These basically tell my brain the pain’s not there, the pain I’ve had since 27 September 2000,” he says.
Ian Lindgren and his wife Maria Lindgren. Photo: PayMe Australia.
Since retiring from the army, he’s made it his life’s mission to help out veterans in similarly dangerous territory, now as chair of the Australian Peacekeeper and Peacemaker Veterans Association (APPVA).
He’s also back behind the wheel, in a gleaming black V12-powered Aston Martin Vantage, purchased in 2012 for his 50th birthday as a “little reward”. And he’s in love.
“The plan is to keep it for as long as I can crawl out of it,” he says.
“In fact, an Aston Martin bloke rang me yesterday to ask if I’d sell it back, but I’m not interested. This is the perfect shape. I don’t like the new ones at all.”
What a pretty view. Photo: James Coleman.
Eagle-eyed Canberrans might have spotted it during the recent ‘Classic Cruise Canberra’, when more than 300 exotic and classic cars set off on a cruise through the city from the National Arboretum to Questacon, all to raise money for Camp Quality and kids suffering with cancer.
Ian and his wife Maria took part, again as part of their aim to “give back”.
“It’s the Australian way, I think,” he says.
It’s all thanks to a decision he made in 2005 to turn his life around.
Faced with a future of forced medical retirement, tucked away at home wearing trackie-dacks and a T-shirt, rather than give in to dark thoughts, Ian used his IT know-how and public service connections to launch his own company.
Within three years, ‘PayMe Australia’ grew to have a multi-million dollar annual turnover, and it’s now the country’s leading payroll and salary packaging consultancy for contractors “purely by paying people on time, being honest, and not ripping anyone off”.
“I designed the business plan, the website, and then just went and visited every recruitment company in town so they could learn who I was,” Ian says.
“And then for the people who wanted to use our services, I wouldn’t let them join until I had coffee with them.”
If only you could hear it. Photo: James Coleman.
In 2016, he went a step further and entered the novated leasing fray with another company, Alliance Leasing.
“Because what I’d found is that people who take advantage of car leases through, say, Defence or other government agencies, aren’t actually making much tax savings, because the company has a charge for joining, another charge for changing job, and a monthly fee for this and that,” he says.
By basing operations in two offices – one in Brisbane and another in Canberra – Alliance could cut its overheads, and reduce its fees.
The approach has landed them big contracts, including with the Queensland Government which recently signed on for another six years.
The Aston is leased through Ian’s company, Alliance Leasing. Photo: James Coleman.
His own car, the Aston, isn’t technically his, but rather leased through Alliance.
“So this comes off our balance sheet as a business expense, and we use it for things like the Camp Cruise, and business purposes, and I also have a lot of fun too,” he says.
As for how you can get one, his business advice is simple.
“You’ve got to have one quality, and that’s authenticity,” he says.
“People often say how honest and full of integrity they are, or how they’d never do anything bad, but I often find that means they’re often lacking in those characteristics. Never, ever think a company will make you rich. It’s people, who want to deal with someone who’s trustworthy.”
Visit Alliance Leasing for more information.
