Legend has it: Ken Newton on 30 years of VASA

Regularly introduced as “the guy who does all the stuff but doesn’t know anything about air-conditioning”, for two decades Ken Newton was the powerhouse behind VASA, serving through three presidencies and dozens of changes to the board of directors to consistently deliver a better deal for members and the broader industry.

Claiming to still have little technical knowledge after all these years, Ken nevertheless immersed himself in understanding the issues affecting the automotive air-conditioning sector and became a passionate, respected advocate.

The seeds of Ken’s involvement with VASA were sown in the early 1990s when he received a phone call from Mark Mitchell, who had just finished outfitting his workshop with advanced facilities for safely removing and storing refrigerant. 

Mitchell’s friend, a newspaper reporter, suggested he contact Ken to help publicise what was at the time the most advanced mobile air-conditioning workshop in Australia. 

As a public relations consultant with experience promoting engineering and industrial firms, Ken agreed to help. This initial contact led to him playing a larger role in VASA after Mark Mitchell willed it into existence in 1993. Though he knew little about cars or air-conditioning, Ken threw himself into supporting VASA and its goals.

He became deeply invested in VASA and the many individuals he met through the organization over the decades.

Modestly downplaying his CEO title, Ken describes his former role as “really a dogsbody, a CEO dogsbody”, and that he viewed his main responsibility as “immediate backup to the VASA board”.

Wearing several VASA hats including public relations strategist,  magazine editor and webmaster, Ken played a pivotal role in establishing VASA as a powerful advocate that challenged government policies and big corporations on important issues impacting auto air workshops, technicians and their supply chain.

He handled all aspects of promoting and representing the association, writing speeches and handling public relations for Mitchell and subsequent VASA presidents.

 Ken combined his journalist’s eye for a story with PR skills and contacts to help successive VASA presidents convey the association’s messages to newspapers, as well as onto television and radio spots.

He also made submissions to various levels of government and advocated on VASA’s behalf within the corridors of corporate power, environments in which he says he had to battle countless cases of institutionalised incompetence.

But Ken still speaks with relish about the challenge of being the person who “made the bullets” which VASA members used to “fight for their rights” on important issues like refrigerant regulations, licensing and raising the alert on the rise of hydrocarbon refrigerant retrofits in the automotive aftermarket.

Part of what made this so satisfying for Ken was that he admired the “guts” of VASA members when taking on powerful opponents.

To this end, Ken ensured members were well-informed on issues so they could spread consistent messaging. He also convinced big corporate supporters to remain involved with VASA by emphasising how this ultimately benefited their businesses.

While some saw VASA as a “little fart of an organisation”, as Ken put it, his efforts helped amplify its voice into a powerful advocacy force through aggressive and creative use of media and lobbying tactics. To this day he remains proud of VASA’s early confrontational approach to challenging authorities – some of which he says “we wouldn’t get away with today” – that established its strength for years to come.

On a personal level, Ken says his involvement with VASA had a profound impact. He formed deep and lasting friendships with many members and came to have a new appreciation for the auto-AC industry and the people working in it.

It seems the feeling is mutual. Ken says that even a decade after retiring from VASA, members past and present still regularly stay in contact with him. Others have recognised him in public and stopped for a chat.

Part of this lasting impact was through his work on, and visibility at, VASA events but it was Ken’s passion for communicating the importance of the Australasian automotive air-conditioning industry to society as a whole, thereby elevating the urgency of addressing its challenges, by telling stories about the people, their workplaces and their businesses.

 This is something that shines through in the history book Ken is co-authoring with founding VASA president Mark Mitchell and is now in its final stages of editing ahead of publication in the New Year.

By far Ken’s biggest single undertaking with VASA, the history project has caused him to simultaneously lament Australasia’s diminished industrial capacity and feel inspired by people in the auto-AC industry who, through their diverse backgrounds, innovative approaches and dogged perseverance overcame technical and commercial challenges that must have seemed insurmountable to many at the time.

For Ken, as the project developed, the book – titled Cool Mavericks – became less a technical tome and more a tribute to the remarkable characters who built the Australasian auto-AC industry from the ground up.

It all comes back to Ken’s belief in the power of storytelling to bring a subject – and in this case history – to life in a way no amount of technical detail could.

And Ken’s track record of deploying this power to great effect is nothing short of legendary.

Proud Wire & Gas legacy

Of all his efforts and achievements with VASA, Ken Newton said  it was the conventions and other events of which he feels most proud, as they brought together thousands of industry professionals, exhibitors, and delegates over the years.

He saw organising these often huge conventions as some of his best work – VASA or otherwise – and remains grateful of the support from dedicated committees that included regular VASA members as well as those on the board in driving and shaping these events.

Encouraging people to attend often took tremendous effort, with Ken putting together persuasive materials about the benefits of training and networking.

As much as he realised getting new people involved was important for the future, Ken acknowledged that it was mostly familiar faces who attended each convention.

Still, he took great satisfaction from receiving positive feedback about the impact of each event.