Directors

Geoff Dixon is Chairman of the Australian Government’s major tourism marketing organisation Tourism Australia, and Chairman of the Garvan Medical Research Foundation and Events Queensland.

He sits on the boards of publicly listed Australian companies Crown Limited, Consolidated Media Holdings and Facilitate Digital. He is on the boards of Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, and is an Ambassador for the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation. Mr Dixon has also worked in the media, mining and government sectors.

He was Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Qantas Airways Limited from 2001 to 2008. He joined Qantas in 1994 and was also Chief Commercial Officer and, for two years, Deputy Chief Executive.

Stephen Gregg has over 30 years experience in the aviation and tourism sectors. He has recently completed a contract as the Chief Executive Officer of Cairns Airport Pty Ltd and Mackay Airport Pty Ltd commencing in June 2009. He is providing consultancy services to the airport owners and is a director of Tourism Tropical North Queensland.

Prior to this Mr Gregg held several senior positions within the Queensland tourism industry including CEO of Tourism Queensland, CEO of Dreamworld/Whitewater World theme parks on the Gold Coast.

He served as Managing Director of the Northern Territory Tourist Commission and is experienced in many sectors of the Australian Tourism industry, including tour wholesaling, travel agency operations, four wheel drive adventure touring and coach touring as well as airline operations.

Mr Gregg completed a Master of Business Administration (MBA) at Griffith University in1997 and is married with four children.

Currently he is the Chairman of the Queensland Tourism Industry Council and National Park Pty Ltd the private family company which operates O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat and Villas.

An expert on self-management, Lisa juggles family, sport, business and leisure time to create a lifestyle that is challenging, rewarding, satisfying, sometimes stressful, but mostly fun.

Lisa is best known for her long and successful swimming career. She has competed in three Olympic Games (Moscow in 1980, Los Angeles in 1984 and Barcelona in 1992); two World Championships (Berlin in 1978 and Ecuador in 1982); and three Commonwealth Games (Edmonton in 1978, Brisbane in 1982 and Auckland in 1990). Her competitive swimming career spans an awe-inspiring 17 years during which she collected 24 gold medals, 21 silver medals and 8 bronze medals at national and international competitions.

Today, alongside husband Grant Kenny, Lisa is Director of a diverse group of companies; the Curry Kenny Group, which runs a multinational, multimillion-dollar portfolio of companies.

Lisa, now a mother of three, was ranked in the top 25 swimmers in the world for the duration of her career since the age of 15.

Tim Horan is well known to sports lovers around the world for his highly capped rugby career as a Wallaby and Queensland Red.

Post rugby, he is a Business Director for Westpac Sports and Entertainment as well as a rugby presenter with Fox Sports.

In 2003, Tim was inducted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame; was a Wallaby selector in 2004/2005; 2009 awarded an Order of Australia (AM)

Tim is an ambassador for Aunties and Uncles Queensland and the Spinal Injuries Association of Queensland and is currently completing an Executive MBA at Bond University.

Cathy Hunt has over 25 years experience of working in the arts and creative industries in Australia, Hong Kong and the UK. She is one of the founding Directors of cultural consultancy Positive Solutions. Her previous professional experience was in the management of art centres, touring performing companies, and festivals including Founding Director of the UK Liverpool Festival of Comedy and Artistic Programmer of Battersea Arts Centre, London.

Cathy's expertise includes cultural policy research and planning; feasibility studies for cultural facilities and creative precincts, including consulting to architects Norman Foster + Partners for their recent winning master plan for the West Kowloon Cultural Precinct in Hong Kong.

In Australia, Cathy has worked extensively on policies and strategies for arts and culture for local, state and federal government . Most recently she has been working in the Torres Strait on an integrated cultural policy for the Torres Strait Regional Authority to be launched in 2011; leading the research team into new financing strategies for the arts, including a Foundation for the Artist on behalf of the Australian Government Office for the Arts and researching the characteristics of artistic leadership for the Australia Council for the Arts.

Dr. Judith McLean has extensive experience in the Performing Arts, Education and Health sectors.

Her responsibilities include: Chair Southern Cross Soloists (2010 -); Company Director, Asia Pacific Screen Awards (ASPA) (2009-); Inaugural Chair Major Brisbane Festival (2003-2007); Chair, Queensland Theatre Company (2000-2003); Chair, Queensland Minister for Justice and the Arts Cultural Advisory Council (1999-2002); Member, Theatre Board & Promoting the Value of the Arts (PVA) Strategy, Australia Council (2000-2002); Member, Steering Committee, Review of the Program of Assistance - QLD Parliamentary Inquiry (2000).

Judith has recently been appointed as a Professor in a joint role shared by QUT Creative Industries & QPAC. She also works as leadership coach and consultant and has published in the areas of aesthetic education and the nature of collaboration in the development of successful teams.

Her research interests include leadership and aesthetics, arts and cultural policy, neuroscience and emotionality in the corporate world. She also works with Queensland Health facilitating workshops for senior staff on strategic direction as well as teaching leadership studies (MBA, Complex Project Management, Canberra) for the Australian Defence Force.

Dennis Chant is the Managing Director of Queensland Airports Limited, the owner-operator of Gold Coast, Townsville and Mount Isa Airports in Australia, ground handling company Aviation Ground Handling (AGH) and MRO company, Worland Aviation. Dennis has had 40 years experience in the aviation, maritime and tourism industries in Australia and internationally.

He was responsible for the management and development of Cairns International Airport following its transfer from the Federal Government to the Cairns Port Authority in 1981. Cairns was the first major regional airport in Australia to be transferred from federal control to local ownership. In his twelve years at Gold Coast Airport, he has initiated marketing and development strategies focussed on exploitation of its leisure travel potential. Over the last five years he and his team have had responsibility for acquisition of Townsville and Mount Isa Airports and developing Queensland Airports Ltd into the largest operator of regional airports in Australia. Under his leadership, QAL and its airports have been active sponsors of many events across Queensland including the Gold Coast Airport Marathon and the Queensland Tourism Awards.

Dennis Chant is a member the World Governing Board of Airports Council International (ACI) and the Honorary Secretary/Treasurer and member for ACI's Asia Pacific Regional Board. He is also a Member of the Board of the Commonwealth Games Bid Company and Board Member of Queensland Events Gold Coast. Dennis was previously the Chairman of Gold Coast Tourism and the Federal Government's Gold Coast and Region Area Consultative Committee. He is a member of Gold Coast City Council's Business Gold Coast Advisory Board.

He holds a degree in civil engineering and a Masters degree in Business Administration. Dennis has completed the Senior Airport Management Course at the International Aviation Management Training Institute in Montreal.

Cr Paul Pisasale was elected to Council in March 1991, elected Deputy Mayor in April 2000, Elected mayor in March 2004 and re-elected as Mayor of the City of Ipswich in March 2008.

Paul's dedication to and pride for the City of Ipswich, as well as his drive and enthusiasm, are very evident to all that come in contact with him. He is passionate about working at a regional level, breaking down barriers and ensuring that people are the number one priority for local government. He is also strongly determined to work together in partnership with the community, private enterprise and all levels of government to meet the challenges ahead as the City of Ipswich continues to prosper and grow.

Paul has an active interest in business and youth initiatives, many business and community organisations and employment enterprise and is patron of over 40 organisations. He strongly believes that care for the community is vital to a growing community.

Anthony joined Tourism Queensland in 2005 as Executive Director International Operations after a long career in management with Qantas which included heading up the Airline’s German and Austrian operations, Industry Sales for New South Wales, Product Development, Tourism Marketing and Corporate Sponsorships. He was also Assistant to Managing Director James Strong.

Anthony was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Tourism Queensland in September 2007 after acting in the position for three months.

Anthony has served on several tourism industry body boards of management including the Australian Tourism Export Council, Sydney Visitors and Convention Bureau and Tourism Tropical North Queensland. He is currently a board member of Events Queensland, Brisbane Marketing and ATEC (Australian Tourism Export Council).

Patrick Vidgen is the Deputy Director-General, Governance, Department of the Premier and Cabinet. In this role, he is responsible for leading the delivery of executive and corporate support services by the department.

Pat has previously held various senior positions within the Department of the Premier and Cabinet in the areas of Constitutional and Administrative Law Services, Security Planning and Coordination and State Affairs.

He currently represents the Queensland Government on a range of State and Australian Government boards and committees.