Like a backpacking tourist. That's how Patrick Hall came to Chile and to Vantaz. Tired of traveling, he decided to settle down at least for a couple of years at the end of the world and through Laborum.com, he found a job in - by then - a new Chilean consulting company: Vantaz.
We are talking about the year 2001. Today Patrick Hall, of French-English origin, is still in Chile, is married to a Chilean woman and has two children. Half of his stay in South America has been linked to Vantaz, in fact, he was in charge of founding Vantaz Australia. He is currently a consulting partner at Deloitte, with a focus on energy and resources.
How did you join Vantaz?
I arrived backpacking, I traveled seven months in South America and I arrived with the intention of settling in Chile for a couple of years. There I met the Vantaz family in May 2001, the company was nine months old, and I think there were seven people. They had just won their first big contracts with BHP, so they incorporated me as a senior consultant, I had worked three years as a consultant in Europe.
I was the first foreigner and the first unrelated, in fact, I came to Vantaz applying through Laborum. I was interviewed by Mauro in a bar and then there was another interview, it was all very informal and then I arrived at the company. They were all in the same room. I thought I was going to be there for two years, but I have been in Chile for more than twenty. Eleven of those years were at Vantaz. Vantaz was like my family at the beginning because I didn't know anyone in Chile, I even hung out with them, their friends, and their families.
In those years was the "Vantáztico" seal already in place?
Totally, it was born in those years. What was difficult was to maintain it with the growth. When there were less than ten of us, it was very natural. There was a lot of similarity among all of us and a desire to do things. We were of a similar age. There was a desire to share that went beyond the purely professional.
What do you remember with the greatest joy from those years?
I started as a senior consultant and then grew, in 2005 I became a partner. In 2006 I got married and in 2007 I left to found Vantaz Australia. I was sent with my wife to Australia and it was a tremendous experience, she was not so fluent in English at that time. It was an incredible life experience. We stayed there for six months and then I went back and forth three or four times a year from 2006 to 2012, until I left Vantaz. That experience was very special.
The other thing was to grow, from being less than ten people to become more than a hundred when I left, and to sustain in that time of growth the quality of the people, the human quality, that vantáztico spirit. That search for sharing beyond and maintaining it without losing the characteristics of the consultants, that was remarkable because we grew very fast. For me that was a great value and it is something very difficult to maintain.
Do you think you were professionally marked by the “Vantáztico" stamp?
No doubt about it. When we left with Marcel, in fact, our objective was to be able to replicate in some way the way of doing things that Vantaz had, and I think that in one way or another we put that stamp on Inn People. Then in Deloitte, with my work teams, I have always sought to maintain something similar to the Vantaz style in the way of doing business, the way of being very horizontal, of sharing, of being transparent, of not having hierarchies. That is part of who I am and part of what I seek to replicate.
What do you think of the “Vantaz Alumni”?
When we went to the first meeting last year, many of us loved it, because many of us saw each other sometimes in other spaces, but many others did not. I think that for all of us who went through Vantaz it was very pleasant to meet again. Vantaz was a time of much growth, much learning, very remarkable and human people, diverse. I really enjoyed retaking that relationship and refreshing it. In fact, there was the official activity and afterwards many of us continued in a bar for several more hours because there was a desire to extend the bond.
