Recipient of the 2026 Australia's Local Hero award, Frank Mitchell was running a WA construction company with a team of eight when he and his co-founders set themselves an ambitious task.
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They wanted to have 20 Indigenous apprentices by 2020.
A decade later, Mr Mitchell and his company co-founders have a thriving business that has created more than 70 Aboriginal upskilling positions and counting.
The 43-year-old Whadjuk-Yued Noongar man, is co-director of Wilco Electrical and co-founder/director of Kardan, Baldja and Bilyaa in the trades and construction industry.
His commitment to change was shaped by early lived experiences of suicide and the loss of best friends.
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"When I started my apprenticeship, my life shifted," he said, in an emotional speech on Sunday night.
"I was a single dad from a small rural community. I had struggled at school, was grieving the deaths of two close friends, and felt disconnected from who I was as an Aboriginal man living on colonised land.
"My uncle offered me a lifeline, a mature age apprenticeship. I now understand that work and education are not just about income or career progression, they are determinants of health and wellbeing."
When he became a business owner in 2015, he pledged to create the same opportunities for other Indigenous people.
Today, the four companies he and his co-founders run together employ over 200 full-time staff.
His story embodies a vision that integrates cultural values with business leadership while strengthening his ties to community and reshaping his industry.
"I used to talk about paying it forward," he said on Sunday.
"Our old people had a word for this reciprocity. If more Australians can embrace this ancient cycle of responsibility and reciprocity, we can work together and walk together for a better future, more for our children and for all those who come after us."
