Clarke Dudley – A life built on loyalty and achievements

A man of wisdom, integrity, courage and dedication and a man who perfected the art of doing things his way, earned Clarke Barnett Dudley immense respect from all who had the pleasure of knowing and working with him. His greatest strength was his ability to value people of all walks of life and see the contribution they made, no matter how big or how small.

Clarke Barnett Dudley, aged 73, died peacefully at Cabrini Hospital, Prahran (Melbourne) after a brief stay, on Thursday 16 April. He had been undergoing cancer treatment for a number of years. The disease appeared to have been controlled and his death came as a shock to all.

In his most recent years until his passing, Clarke was the CEO and Chairman of Boadicea Resources, a mining exploration company he founded in 2011, brought to a successful IPO in 2012, and which was ultimately named the best performing IPO of 2012 hitting a high of 61 cents on its first day of trade, having launched at 20 cents.

After more than 40 years trail blazing a career in Australia’s resources sector, Clarke became known as a CEO and company maker who did things his way to drive the successes for the companies he started and headed, and was always concerned about the interests and welfare of shareholders who trusted in his leadership.

Clarke Dudley’s early years and family life

Clarke Dudley was born on 22 September 1946 and was the first-born to parents George and Doris Dudley in Armadale, a suburb in Melbourne’s leafy eastern suburbs.

He was soon joined by a sister, Dianne.

Schooling in both primary and secondary school was at Caulfield Grammar School and he went onto pursue a career as a chartered accountant.

Clarke married first wife Lasjia with whom he had three children, Andrew, now 46, Nicole and Ramon now both 43. He later on married second wife Carolyn and he became stepfather to Elisa.

Clarke’s grandchildren are Sophie 23, Jordan 20, Brodie 10, Max 11 , Kayla 9  and Charlie 7.

His hobbies and passions were swimming, browsing through the many treasures at opportunity shops, grabbing a supermarket bargain, eating out in Oakleigh (a suburb of Melbourne), socialising at Flemington Racecourse and Kooyong Tennis Club.

He counted his greatest achievements in life as always being supportive of his children and resurrecting delisted companies. He loved his work and found joy in working. When he wasn’t working he was happy to spend time with his family and enjoying his own space.

Professional life and achievements

A Chartered Accountant by qualification, having obtained his accreditation in 1976, Clarke forged a 40 year career predominantly in the mineral exploration industry preparing financial statements, working on administrative matters, restructuring, stock exchange listings, management, acquisitions and prospectus preparation and fund raising.

His career saw him managing the corporate process from company formation to stock exchange listing and beyond.

His first job in 1965 was at Price Waterhouse & Company Chartered Accountants undertaking taxation and audit responsibilities. From 1969-1970 he worked as an auditor at Fitzgerald Gunn & Partners Chartered Accountants. From 1970-1976 he undertook accounting and taxation responsibilities at CRB James & Company Chartered Accountants. In 1976 he worked at Grant Falk Thomas & Company Public Accountants where he held accounting and secretarial responsibilities.

It was from the mid-1970s onwards that Clarke Dudley started to forge a strong career for what he became known for – taxation and corporate advisory including company restructuring and stock exchange listings.

His major corporate involvement included: restructuring Sunhill Corporation, restructuring and relisting F & H Evans Holdings, managing Alcaston Mining NL and organising the takeover of Regency Investments and Associated Gold Mines of Victoria. He formed Alcaston Diamond Exploration and prepared the prospectus to spin out Lionheart Exploration.

From 1988-1991 he was a director of Alcaston Mining and where he started his hunt for valuable mining tenements to increase shareholder value. He rationalised the company’s gold interests; acquired controlling interests in Regency Investments; initiated Regency’s strategy to acquire Victorian country hotel properties; investigated property and commercial opportunities in Guam; and acquired all the shares in Associated Gold Mines of Victoria.

It was in the 10 years he was Chairman and Managing Director of Alcaston Mining from 1991-2001 he increased the company’s market capitalisation from $700,000 to $8,500,000.

The highlights of his leadership of Alcaston Mining NL included the company being granted an extensive exploration licence surrounding Woods Point in Victoria. The Walhalla Woods Point Gold Field is the second largest historic producing gold field in Victoria.

In 1995 Clarke made the front cover of Sweden’s national newspaper, Expressen, following application of diamond exploration licences covering approximately 50% of the Sweden’s land mass.

In 1998 Alcaston was granted 15,000km of licences (approximately 3% of Sweden’s land mass).

In 2011, Clarke began the journey of creating the Boadicea Resources story. Together with a group of loyal and dedicated shareholders, who became his seed investors and have remained faithful to the Boadicea story for the past 10 years, Clarke oversaw the most successful IPO on Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) of 2012 when Boadicea Resources listed on 11 November. Certainly a day to remember for Clarke and Boadicea Resources.

Clarke Dudley always held the view that if he was loyal to his shareholders, his shareholders would be loyal to him. He kept the shareholder value tight for Boadicea to ensure company value wasn’t diluted.

The Boadicea Resources story saw Clarke apply and win tenements in the Fraser Range of Western Australia and other mineral exploration hotspots in Western Australia.

It was Clarke’s strong belief in the potential of the Fraser Range that has shone the spotlight on Boadicea Resources. He knew and continued to drive the potential of the company’s flagship project – Symons Hill. He also understood that while he had a good eye for good land tenements, that Boadicea Resources was an exploration story that would someday grow into a successful mining story cementing the Fraser Range on the map as firmly as Canada’s Thompson nickel belt.

Clarke Dudley loved life, loved his family, his friends, his work and his loyalty to all was unrivalled. Family, friends and colleagues remember Clarke’s love of pies and sausage rolls, especially when they were offered at meetings and conference talks. His favourite sweeties were cakes, particularly vanilla slices and custard tarts. Meanwhile, give Clarke a choice between a beer, a red wine, white wine or a champagne, he certainly loved the finer bubbles of champagne as his tipple of choice.

Vale Clarke Dudley. Your life achievements, your integrity, your loyalty to friends and family and your love of driving success will be the legacy you leave with us all.