Meet the man who wouldn’t retire

Decades of blood, sweat and tears that turned a modest catering business with two employees into a roaring success with more than 100 staff might’ve been enough to send most retirees to the golf course for good. But not Oliver Buecher.

Then again, the straight-talking broker known as the “friendly German” at Liberty Financial was never much drawn to the beaten path.

Oliver took his first foray into the workforce at age 12 when he bought a paper route in his hometown of Frankfurt for 100 Marks (German currency before the Euro).

With the money earned, he bought a television and turned it into a business venture.

“It was 1972, television was the ‘hot’ thing and there weren’t many colour TVs around, so I rented out seats for 1 Mark,” he says.

The moment he turned the legal working age of 14-and-a-half, Oliver decided to pursue a mechanics career. But he failed the test and took up as a chef’s apprentice instead. It was the stroke of fate that would lead to a 40-year hospitality career, a move to Australia and meeting the love of his life.

Oliver cheffed in five-star hotels and castles in Germany before fulfilling his two-year mandated army service as a paratrooper.

“My sergeant major would say to me ‘Oliver, you have a lot to learn but we’ll make a human out of you’,” Oliver says.

“He taught me that if you say something, you have to mean it. If you say you’re going to do something, do it. That man reinvented me. I owe him big.”

After two years of jumping out of planes and helicopters, Oliver picked up his cheffing career in London’s Intercontinental Hotel where he was given another life-changing piece of advice from the head chef.

“He told me ‘Oliver, if you don’t want to die on the sandwich bar, learn English’. I picked up a copy of Collins Dictionary and started studying episodes of Sesame Street,” he says.

A few years after the Cookie Monster had finished teaching Oliver how to count in English, and following numerous promotions and transfers around Europe to manage enormous volumes of staff and food in multinational hotels, he spotted a magazine ad. A hotel in Canberra was offering to sponsor a chef.

“Remember that TV I bought? Every Saturday at 4:10 pm, I used to watch Skippy das Busch Kangaroo. Of course, Skippy spoke perfect German, but I was always intrigued by Australia,” Oliver says.

He will never forget going from a -32 degrees Celsius climate, where his plane had to be de-iced before take-off, and stepping into a 29C day in Canberra where he became a cook at what was then The Canberra International, now known as the Pavilion on Northbourne. Within 18 months he moved up to second chef and eventually, head chef.

During this time he met his “Greek flower”, Georgina, who worked in classifieds at The Canberra Times. He placed an ad asking her out, and one year later (and some persistence on Oliver’s part) the pair married.

Shortly after, they started their catering business, supplying the Canberra Workers Club, The Labour Club and the government. And the hard slog turned it into something of an institution.

Two daughters and many years in the hospitality industry later, Oliver retired in February 2015 aged 55. It lasted barely two years.

“At first it was great – we travelled. Then I came home and was watching The Bold and The Beautiful and Home and Away and I couldn’t cope anymore,” Oliver says.

“I said to Gina ’55 is too young to retire’.”

Oliver retrained as a mortgage broker for Liberty Financial where he handles deposit bonds, business capital, personal loans, SMSF buildings, business purchases and sales for customers all over the country. Plus his latest interest – commercial lending.

“My next target is to become Canberra’s best commercial broker,” he says.

Oliver has also convinced his accountant daughter, Danielle Dromgold, to join him as a Liberty adviser.

“The idea is that we work together and create a succession plan for when I finally say goodbye to this world,” Oliver says.

“There are just two conditions – one, she has to be nice to me and two, she must always, always do the right thing by the customer. If she says something to them, she has to mean it.”

In his reincarnation as a broker, radical honesty remains the name of the game for Oliver, who prides himself on “telling it how it is”, according to Danielle.

“He might not be ‘everyone’s cup of tea’, but he’s been running businesses a long time, he has valuable insights and you could never accuse him of wasting your time. I think that’s a really valuable trait in a mortgage broker,” Danielle says.

“He has a tough exterior, but at the heart of it all, he wants to help people succeed in their goals.”

Danielle brings to the table a good head for figures and mortgage experience from both sides of the sector.

“I’ve bought properties before, and that’s where my interest stems from. I think more time should be spent informing customers of their options based on their individual needs. When someone is borrowing money, they shouldn’t feel like they’re just a number – they should feel nurtured,” Danielle says.

“My strength is from an education point of view – communicating things in a digestible format to customers. And as Dad says, always acting in their best interests.”

For more information, contact Oliver at Liberty Financial.

REGION MEDIA PARTNER CONTENT