From country Victoria to business leadership, Indigenous enterprise and the creation of SCS Indigenous, Scott McCartney’s career has been shaped by opportunity, relationships and a belief in helping others succeed.
A career shaped by opportunity
Every leader has a story.
For Scott McCartney, that story begins in country Victoria, where family, community and football shaped his outlook long before business leadership became part of the picture.
Today, Scott is Co-founder and Director of SCS Indigenous (SCSi), an Aboriginal-owned and Supply Nation certified business delivering commercial cleaning and integrated facilities services across Australia.
His path to SCSi has been anything but conventional. It has taken him through professional football, senior business leadership, Indigenous business development and entrepreneurship, with each experience shaping his views about leadership, opportunity and the role successful businesses can play in creating positive change.
For Scott, success has never simply been about the position you hold.
It’s about what you can build and the opportunities you can create for others.
Growing up with strong family and community values
Scott spent much of his childhood in regional Victoria, where family and community were central to everyday life.
His grandmother, Dawn, was an important influence, instilling values around respect, hard work and giving back that would stay with him throughout his career.
Growing up in a small country community also shaped Scott’s understanding of opportunity. The world young people could imagine for themselves was often influenced by what they could see around them.
That perspective changed when football provided Scott with a scholarship to attend Assumption College in Kilmore for Years 11 and 12.
The opportunity exposed him to different people, networks and possibilities and broadened his view of what his future might look like.
The experience would eventually help shape one of the principles he continues to carry with him today:
“You can’t be what you can’t see.”
That belief now sits behind much of Scott’s approach to Indigenous business and creating opportunity for others.
Football taught leadership before business did
Football played a significant role in Scott’s early life, but the lessons extended well beyond the game itself.
As captain of the football team at Assumption College, he began learning about leadership, accountability and the importance of contributing to something bigger than yourself.
Football later took Scott to East Perth Football Club in Western Australia, where his professional leadership career began in football operations. He progressed through increasingly senior roles, gaining experience in managing people, building relationships and understanding how successful organisations operate.
Looking back, Scott sees strong parallels between sporting and business environments.
The best teams rarely succeed because of one individual. They succeed because people understand their roles, trust each other and work towards a shared objective.
Those lessons would follow him throughout his career.
Learning to lead in business
Moving beyond professional sport opened a new chapter for Scott.
Over the years that followed, he worked across several industries and senior leadership roles, building experience in automotive and residential construction.
What mattered most wasn’t moving between industries but discovering that many of the fundamentals of leadership remained the same.
People needed clarity. They needed trust. And they needed leaders prepared to listen.
Scott is open about the fact that his leadership style evolved significantly through experience. Early in his career, like many young leaders, he believed being in charge meant having the answers.
Over time, he came to see leadership differently.
The strongest leaders surround themselves with capable people, ask good questions and create an environment in which others can succeed.
“Leadership isn’t about being the smartest person in the room. It’s about helping everyone else become better.”
Helping Aboriginal businesses grow
One of the defining chapters in Scott’s career came when he joined Kinaway, the Victorian Aboriginal Chamber of Commerce.
Kinaway works to strengthen the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander business sector and improve connections between Indigenous businesses and procurement opportunities.
During Scott’s tenure, Kinaway grew significantly, with membership increasing from approximately 100 businesses to more than 570.
But the experience gave Scott something more important than numbers.
It gave him a first-hand understanding of what helps Indigenous businesses succeed.
He saw capable business owners who didn’t need special treatment. They needed access to opportunity, stronger commercial networks and the chance to demonstrate what their businesses could deliver.
He also saw that successful Indigenous procurement involves much more than awarding a contract.
Sustainable outcomes come when businesses can build capability, develop commercial experience, establish long-term relationships and compete on their merits.
Those lessons fundamentally shaped Scott’s thinking about Indigenous enterprise and economic participation.
They would also influence what came next.
From adviser to entrepreneur
After leaving Kinaway, Scott wanted to experience Indigenous business from the other side of the table.
Rather than advising businesses, he wanted to build them.
He established NYERN Consulting and became involved in a number of Indigenous enterprises, investing his own capital and experiencing first-hand the risks, opportunities and challenges that come with entrepreneurship.
The experience reinforced the importance of building businesses with strong commercial foundations.
Purpose mattered, but purpose alone couldn’t sustain a business.
For Scott, commercial success and positive social impact needed to work together.
“Commercial success and social impact don’t compete with each other. Done properly, they strengthen each other.”
That thinking ultimately became important in the creation of SCSi.
Finding the right business partner
Scott’s path eventually crossed with SCS Group Founder and Managing Director Nick Pastras.
They came from different backgrounds, but Scott recognised a strong alignment in the way they thought about business, relationships and creating opportunity.
Importantly, Scott wasn’t looking simply to attach his name to an established company.
He had seen opportunities for Indigenous businesses to be created primarily to satisfy procurement requirements without developing genuine capability or purpose.
He wanted something different.
In Nick and SCS Group, Scott saw the opportunity to build an Aboriginal-owned business with its own Indigenous leadership and purpose while drawing on the operational capability, systems and industry experience of an established commercial cleaning business.
Together, they established SCS Indigenous.
Building SCS Indigenous with purpose
For Scott, SCSi represents the combination of two things that have shaped much of his career: commercial opportunity and meaningful impact.
Commercial cleaning provides a service that organisations across almost every industry require. SCSi can compete for that work based on capability, service and commercial value while also helping organisations strengthen their Indigenous procurement outcomes.
As the business grows, its impact can grow with it.
Through The Bandum Fund, SCSi is creating a pathway to reinvest part of that commercial success into initiatives that remove barriers and create opportunities for First Nations people and communities.
The Fund supports opportunities across education, culture, sport, leadership and personal development, reflecting Scott’s own experience of how access to the right opportunity can change someone’s view of what’s possible.
For Scott, that connection is fundamental.
SCSi needs to succeed commercially because sustainable commercial success creates the foundation for sustainable impact.
Looking ahead
Ask Scott what he wants SCSi to achieve over the years ahead and the answer extends well beyond growing a commercial cleaning business.
He wants to see more Aboriginal businesses competing successfully for major contracts.
He wants corporate and government procurement teams to recognise Indigenous businesses for the capability and value they bring.
And he wants more young First Nations people to be exposed to opportunities, experiences and pathways they may not previously have imagined for themselves.
Scott’s own career has shown him how much can change when someone is given an opportunity and then backs themselves to make the most of it.
It’s why a principle that began with his own experience continues to resonate today:
“You can’t be what you can’t see.”
For Scott, creating more opportunities for people to see what’s possible is now part of what SCSi is being built to achieve.
Partner with purpose
SCSi brings together Indigenous leadership with the capability to deliver commercial cleaning and integrated facilities services for organisations across Australia.
For Scott, the goal is to build genuine, long-term partnerships that deliver for clients while creating opportunities that extend beyond the workplace.
By partnering with SCSi, organisations can support their Indigenous procurement objectives while helping strengthen an Aboriginal-owned business whose continued success supports community initiatives through The Bandum Fund.
If your organisation is looking for a trusted Indigenous business partner or would like to learn more about SCSi, we’d welcome the opportunity to have a conversation.
Scott McCartney
Co-founder / Director, SCS Indigenous
M 0424 944 366
E [email protected]
Frequently asked questions
Who is Scott McCartney?
Scott McCartney is Co-founder and Director of SCS Indigenous, an Aboriginal-owned and Supply Nation certified commercial cleaning and integrated facilities services business. His career spans professional sport, senior business leadership, Indigenous business development and entrepreneurship, including his leadership of Kinaway, the Victorian Aboriginal Chamber of Commerce.
What is Scott McCartney known for?
Scott is known for his work in Indigenous business development, procurement, leadership and entrepreneurship. During his leadership of Kinaway, the organisation grew significantly, including increasing its Aboriginal business membership from approximately 100 businesses to more than 570.
What is SCS Indigenous?
SCS Indigenous is an Aboriginal-owned and Supply Nation certified commercial cleaning and integrated facilities services business. SCSi has its own Indigenous leadership and purpose and operates in partnership with SCS Group, drawing on its operational capability, systems and industry experience.
Who founded SCS Indigenous?
SCS Indigenous was co-founded by Scott McCartney and SCS Group Founder and Managing Director Nick Pastras. Their partnership brings together Scott’s Indigenous business and procurement experience with SCS Group’s established commercial cleaning and integrated services capability.
What is The Bandum Fund?
The Bandum Fund is SCSi’s community investment initiative. A portion of SCSi’s business activities is reinvested through the Fund into initiatives supporting First Nations people through education, culture, sport, leadership and personal development.
How can organisations partner with SCS Indigenous?
Organisations can partner with SCSi for commercial cleaning and integrated facilities services while also supporting their Indigenous procurement objectives. SCSi works with organisations seeking a capable Aboriginal-owned and Supply Nation certified service partner.
