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DIAL-AN-ANGEL's Dena Blackman wins FBA Jason Lea Award, press release

24 August 2009

Dena Blackman of DIAL-AN-ANGEL has this year taken out Family Business Australia's prestigious Jason Lea Award, in memory of the late Jason Lea who was National Chairman of FBA from 2002 to 2005.

The award recognises an individual with great entrepreneurial spirit and a strong commitment to excellence in family business best practice.

The state finalists chosen by the judges for the contribution they have individually made to their family businesses, exemplified the `can do' attitude and passion for excellence so characteristic of the late Chairman of Darrel Lea Chocolates.

Dena founded DIAL AN ANGEL in 1967 and grew her business from a one-person, one-telephone office in Lindfield to 11 offices nationwide, four of which are franchises.  The Company now employs around 50 full-time staff with over 10,000 registered Angels.  DIAL AN ANGEL is Australia's only national agency specialising in home and family care.

Dena began with a $200 bank loan while caring for her three young children. To put her achievement into perspective, it was only one year after the removal of the marriage bar in the Commonwealth Public Service that required all women once they were married, to retire from the workforce. Moreover, it took until 1971 for the first bank to provide a loan to women without a male guarantor or without asset guarantee.

Dena has always believed the vital ingredient in the success of the organisation is the way her staff (Angels) are encouraged to regard their works as a vocation. She has set high standards in conditions and remuneration for her Angels.  Building her business on a culture of mutual respect and flexibility the business' retention rate of employees is above industry standard.  A quarter of DIAL AN ANGEL's staff has been with the company for over 10 years.   Angels from years past are now clients and some of the early clients have since become Angels. 

Over the years the services offered have grown to include domestic housekeeping and cleaning, child care, babysitting, nannying, in-home nursing, care of the frail and disabled, in-home aged care, garden and home maintenance, pet care, assistance with corporate events and home functions as well as a Corporate Services Department for many major companies who provide their staff with work-lifestyle initiatives.

DIAL-AN-ANGEL has always been a family affair. Four generations of Dena's family have been involved in the business over more than four decades, including Dena's mother, three daughters and now a granddaughter who has joined the Brisbane office.

Dena was inducted into the Businesswomen's Hall of Fame in 1999. She was a finalist in the prestigious Verve Cliquot Award in the late 1980s and a finalist in the Business Owner Section recognised at the Telstra NSW Business Women's Awards in 1998,

Other contenders for the award, all state winners, were: South Australia's Rodney Martin of Era Publications; from Queensland, Peter Taylor of Townsend Building Services; from Victoria, Sebastiano Pitruzello of  Pantalica Cheese Company and from West Australia, Atha Limnios of Limnios Property Group.

You can read more here about the Family Business Awards http://www.fambiz.org.au/awards.php