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From trade to executive leadership: Brendan Buchan at BRE Services 

Why Brendan Buchan’s unconventional path has become one of BRE Services’ clearest operational advantages 

Brendan Buchan is Chief Operating Officer at BRE Services, a Melbourne-based industrial contracting and engineering business delivering automation, controls, electrical and mechanical solutions to major Australian manufacturers. 

Ask most COOs how they learned to manage risk on a multimillion-dollar project, and you may get an MBA case study. 

Ask Brendan Buchan, Chief Operating Officer at BRE Services, and he will talk about Motor Control Centres and the Programmable Logic Controller code that runs them. 

It is a fitting starting point for the COO of a Melbourne-based industrial contracting and engineering business delivering automation, controls, electrical and mechanical solutions to major Australian manufacturers. 

Brendan’s path began with an electrical apprenticeship, followed by joining BRE Services as an A Grade electrician and then as an automation engineer.  

At BRE Services, working inside the disciplines he now leads has become one of his clearest operational advantages. 

For a business operating at the intersection of traditional trades, industrial automation and advanced manufacturing, combining trade experience with C-suite operational judgement is a high-value commercial combination. 

Building BRE Services’ industrial automation capability 

As an automation engineer, Brendan identified a clear growth opportunity in Australian manufacturing.  

“Clients were increasingly looking for more connected, automated and efficient production environments. The line between traditional electrical contracting and advanced manufacturing was narrowing,” he recalls.  

Manufacturers needed partners who understood both industrial infrastructure and the automation systems controlling it. With the backing of BRE Services’ CEO Jason Turner, Brendan led the development of the company’s automation division from the ground up. 

That work turned growing client demand into a new business capability and contributed to Brendan’s appointment as Chief Operating Officer in 2019, at 35. 

Today, automation accounts for 20% of BRE Services’ annual revenue and delivers multimillion-dollar automation and industrial project work. Clients include national blue-chip clients, including automated production lines for major FMCG brands, large-scale warehouse automation and robotics-integrated assembly lines for Australian industrial operators. 

Industrial automation, controls and advanced manufacturing 

The company’s integrated model brings together electrical, mechanical, automation, controls and project delivery capability. This allows BRE Services to support industrial clients and their work across the full lifecycle of complex manufacturing and automation projects. 

For Brendan, the success of this model depends on clear communication between technical and operational teams. 

Motor Control Centres, Programmable Logic Controller code, controls systems, electrical infrastructure and mechanical delivery all need to connect in the real world.  

“When those functions are treated as separate silos, project delivery becomes harder,” explains Brendan.  

BRE Services’ approach is to build multidisciplinary teams that understand both the technical detail and the commercial outcome. 

Why technical credibility matters in operational leadership 

As Chief Operating Officer, Brendan is a part of a leadership team overseeing a 160-strong multidisciplinary workforce based in Thomastown in Melbourne. 

His role requires alignment across tradespeople, automation engineers, project managers, office teams and client stakeholders and his background gives him credibility across those groups because he has worked inside the disciplines he now leads. 

That credibility matters in industrial automation and advanced manufacturing, where technical decisions can affect safety, timing, cost, quality and client confidence. 

Brendan’s leadership approach is based on connecting people, systems and delivery priorities without losing sight of the work itself. 

This is particularly important in turnkey industrial project delivery, where BRE Services is responsible for coordinating multiple functions across complex scopes of work. 

Developing operational leaders from within BRE Services 

BRE Services is also focused on developing future operational leaders from within the business. The company’s view is that leadership in industrial automation and advanced manufacturing cannot always be bought externally.  

Technical credibility, systems thinking and delivery discipline are often developed through direct exposure to complex work aimed to deliver solutions. 

“In advanced manufacturing, technical credibility and systems thinking are not easily bought off the shelf. We need that mix of understanding in our leadership.” 

BRE Services and the future of Australian manufacturing automation 

For BRE Services, the demand for industrial automation creates an opportunity to expand its integrated teams, strengthen technical capability and support more national project delivery across electrical, mechanical, automation and controls. 

Brendan’s goals for the year ahead reflect both the business and cultural sides of leadership at BRE Services. 

The business will continue to grow BRE Services’ integrated teams, technical capability and national project footprint; however the cultural goal is more personal: doubling the size of the #teamBRE crew competing at the Melbourne Marathon, following Brendan’s recent run with his wife Brooke and the BRE team. 

For Brendan operational leadership is not separate from technical understanding. 

It is built through knowing the work, respecting the people who deliver it and creating systems that allow complex industrial projects to be delivered well. 

One of the clearest signs a business is serious about sustainable growth is the investment it makes in its executive team.

The appointment of Matt Baer as CFO in 2025 marked a deliberate turning point for BRE Services as the company moved into its next phase of growth in industrial automation and advanced manufacturing space.

Known for translating operational complexity into scalable commercial systems, Matt brings more than a decade of experience in corporate advisory to the business — expertise increasingly critical in the sophisticated industrial environments in which BRE Services operates.

His appointment reflects a strategic focus on strengthening the commercial foundations required to progress. 

A collaborative leader by nature, Matt says strong financial stewardship extends well beyond reporting and compliance.

“Growth and scale are important ambitions, but they require discipline across the business to sustain them,” he says.

“My focus extends beyond optimising financial operations, but embedding best practice, compliance and good governance across the business so it becomes a part of the organisational culture and growth is de-risked as the business scales.”

“The aim is to build the structures now that allow the business to scale with confidence and conviction.”

In high-pressure industrial environments, technical capability matters. But for Geordie, a mechanical fitter and supervisor at BRE Services, strong teams are also built on trust, respect and confidence that the people around you will show up properly.

“When you’re working 10 or 12 hours a day, you’re spending more time with the boys at work than you are with your family,” Geordie says. “Everyone at BRE is very supportive. Everyone gets around one another. It’s just a good environment.”

That environment matters at BRE, where teams work across complex industrial sites, major automation projects and high-value production environments, including robotic grid lines worth up to $70 million. The work requires precision, initiative and the ability to make good decisions under pressure. It also requires people who can operate as a genuine team.

For Geordie, BRE Services’ culture is less about ego and more about getting the work done properly. He believes that starts with leadership and works its way through the business.

“Jason is a down-to-earth, approachable and well-rounded CEO who has an incredible vision for BRE. He interacts with our 150 staff and you get that recognition. You think, ‘Okay, that’s who I’m working for,’ and you carry that confidence with you on site.”

Geordie says accessible, grounded and involved management changes the tone of the workplace. People feel seen, understand the standard and know the business is not being run from a distance. That matters in a workplace where technical standards depend on more than individual competence.

“Teams are developed for precision, working to a high-quality standard, showing initiative, and the expectations are clear. In our job, you have to be very thorough,” Geordie says.

“You have to be switched on — always. A dropped ball bearing or a little nut on a track can flip a robot worth about $250,000,” he says.

While that variety and responsibility can be demanding, Geordan says it also builds stronger tradespeople.

“Working across different sites and sectors gives BRE’s teams exposure to a wide range of systems, standards and client expectations. You become familiar with systems and you’re able to adapt,” he says.

“One day you might be in a pharmaceutical plant, the next day you might be at  a global confectionary plant, and the day after that you might be at recycling facility,” he explains. “It keeps you on your toes. It keeps your mind fresh, and I know it’s good for my long-term career path.”

Adaptability is especially important as industry changes.

“Wherever there are robots, we are always there,” he says. “Someone has to fix the robot, install the robot or carry out servicing.”

For Geordie, the opportunity at BRE is both technical and personal. As a supervisor, he is building his career in a business that develops from within, gives him exposure to major industrial projects and offers a supportive culture at a time in his life when he can make work his primary focus.

“While I’m young, fit and able, I’ll work as hard as I can now, develop my skills and continue to improve so I can cruise a bit more when I’m older.”

In a sector facing growing skill shortages and increasingly complex industrial environments, Geordie is proof that BRE’s advantage is not only in the systems it works on. It is in the people it brings together — and the culture that allows them to do their best work.