Synchron SA/NT/Tasmania Manager Chris Regenass died earlier this month during a cardiac surgery aged 57.

Director Don Trapnell used a video message to pay tribute to Mr Regenass, whom he described as an “important and integral” member of the Synchron family.

He said Mr Regenass went to a Melbourne hospital for some “very serious” cardiac surgery but never woke up from it.

“After a very long operation which involved stopping [his] heart, the surgeons found they were unable to restart that heart again and… we lost one of our own,” Mr Trapnell said.

“He managed Synchron’s operations in SA, NT and Tasmania for the last five years and in that five-year period took Synchron in those states from being a very small operation to being big enough to be a licensee in its own right.

“We will miss Chris Regenass and I hope you will join with me and the rest of the Synchron family in reaching out to Chris’s wife… with our deepest and most sincere sympathies.”