After Her Father's Death, This Entrepreneur Built a Billion-Dollar Company on Passionate Purpose Cathie Reid channeled the loss of her father to cancer into fuel for Icon Group's epic rise to Australia's largest cancer care company.
By Alice •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Underlying her cheery disposition, Cathie Reid is known as "the enforcer" to her children, a moniker that helps to explain how she has built companies valued at more than a billion dollars. The loss of her father to cancer drove Reid, alongside husband and co-founder Stuart, to bring high-quality cancer care as near to patients' homes as possible, to ease the burden of treatments. That mission has been lucrative, to be certain, but Reid is still passionately driven by the impact Icon Group has had on more than two million cancer patients and their families in Australia and South East Asia. That passion is also what has kept her going through the hard times of entrepreneurship: "You have to have that burning fire in your belly."
Reid also credits Icon Group's success to consciously building a team with complementary skill sets to balance talents and knowledge with gaps and personality traits. (To learn about hiring your own diverse team, check out these resources on Alice.)
Not satisfied with her achievements just yet, Reid's latest challenge is astronaut training through Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic program.
