www.couriermail.com.au/news/.../story-e6freoof-1226340594889
FOR Gerard Baden-Clay, honesty has always been the best policy.
In his online blogs, his company profiles and in his capacity as a real estate industry leader, it's a topic he revisits over and over.
"In business, it's simple: never lie," he told The Courier-Mail in 2008.
"For starters, it's the wrong thing to do but secondly you will always get caught out and usually when you least expect it.
"There are just too many people, too many personalities, too many trails ... and too much to lose."
Mr Baden-Clay built his career from the ground up - starting as a junior accountant at KPMG and working his way to the role of principal at Century 21 Westside.
But with Brisbane's real estate market stagnating, there are indications his illustrious career could be going the same way.
It is understood the family had been experiencing financial difficulties, with Century 21 Westside losing some of its staff when it moved from its Kenmore base to Taringa about six months ago.
His company, Settle Westside, took out a $300,000 loan with a former business partner in December 2011.
The business partner now works for a competing real estate agency.
A former business associate said Mr Baden-Clay was "very outgoing and very professional about running his business".
The family rent their four-bedroom, two-bathroom Brookfield home nestled between the leafy suburb's child care centre, general store, showgrounds and pony club.
Mr Baden-Clay describes himself as an action movie enthusiast and a Wilbur Smith fan with a penchant for 80s music.
But he also lists Love Actually, Four Weddings and a Funeral and Bridget Jones' Diary among his favourite films.
"No, you're not imagining things, I really DO enjoy a good chick flick with my beautiful wife!" he wrote.
He is proud of his lineage, referring often to his great-grandfather, Lord Baden Powell, who started the scouting movement.
Gerard, Allison and their children are all life members of the Kandersteg International Scout Centre, an organisation he both volunteered for and spent time as its acting director.
On one website, Mr Baden-Clay describes his passion for the real estate industry: "Honesty, integrity and no surprises ... to provide anything less is to put the client in jeopardy."
His career began in the early 90s, working as an accountant for KPMG and later Designer Work Wear.
From there, he moved on to the tourism industry, landing a job with Flight Centre as a travel consultant in Toombul.
That same year, 26-year-old Allison Dickie, a pretty girl with a dancing background who spoke six languages, was installed as the manager of Flight Centre's Ipswich store.
Three years later, he married her. His career took him to London and Switzerland and, in 2001, back to Brisbane where in 2004 he started Century 21 Westside.
He is heavily involved in his local community, holding a membership with the Brookfield State School Parents' and Citizens' Association and is the president of the Kenmore Chamber of Commerce.
