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Program: 01 | The Confidence Man

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Christopher Skase wants to be a corporate cowboy. He’s handsome and elegant, with Hermes ties and flowing locks. His wife Pixie is beautiful, in a 1980s kind of way, with bouffant blonde hair and more diamonds than a high street jeweller. Together they take on the Melbourne business establishment and start building the Qintex empire.

But it wasn’t always that way.

When 18-year-old Chris Skase graduates high school, he has one goal - to be rich. He has it all mapped out. By working at an investment firm and in finance journalism, he learns everything he can about the art of the corporate takeover.

Skase is watching the new generation of corporate raiders take the business world by storm and he wants in.

With $15 000 in his back pocket and a couple of wealthy business partners, he puts his plan into action. 

After banking his first million, Skase is on his way to building the Qintex empire, even if that means bending the rules.

Credits:

Host: Mark Humphries

Producers: Jake Morcom, Sarah Allely, Kirsti Melville, Claudia Taranto

Theme music & scoring:  Emrys Cronin

Sound design & production: Emrys Cronin

Executive Producer: Claudia Taranto

Commissioning Editor: Michelle Rayner 

Skase: Fall of a Tycoon is a Rewind production for ABC Radio National

Episodes release weekly: search ‘Rewind Skase: Fall of a Tycoon podcast’ on the ABC listen App (Australia), or wherever you get your podcasts.

History, Business Services
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