Transfield After working in Australia for five years with SAE, in 1956 both Salteri and Belgiorno-Nettis (as he later became known) jointly decided to leave SAE and form Transfield, in a partnership that lasted 40 years. The company focused on major engineering projects, such as bridges, tunnels, dams, hydro-electric and coal power stations, oil rigs, concert halls, sugar mills and power lines. Included in their list of major achievements are the construction of the
Gateway Bridge in
Brisbane and the
Sydney Harbour Tunnel. By the early 1980s, Transfield had in excess of 3,000 employees and an annual turnover of
A$350 million; and within five years grew to the point of being the biggest engineering firm in south-east Asia. The company acquired the
Williamstown Dockyard in Melbourne and, in 1989 after winning a A$6 billion contract to build ten
Anzac-class frigates for the Australian and
New Zealand governments, the largest defence company in Australia. The pair stood down as joint managing directors in 1989 in favour of their eldest sons, Paul Salteri and Marco Belgiorno-Zegna. Tenix sold its defence business to
BAE Systems in June 2008, and its main business interests are in infrastructure and parking and traffic businesses across Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific and the US. The name Tenix derives from
tenacity, inspired by a comment made by Salteri's grandfather when Salteri was a young boy: :"...to make one million, one has to start from a 5 centime coin..." Salteri reputably kept this coin from that day, until the day of his death. == Personal ==