Who is involved

The Queensland Leaders community consists of the Advisory Board, Industry Partners, Industry Experts, Executive Leaders, Future Leaders, and Alumni Members.

Advisory Board

The role of the highly qualified and respected Advisory Board is to support the strategic direction of Queensland Leaders and inspire our Members with valuable insights and connections.

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Vivienne Anthon

Advisory Board

Vivienne is an experienced management consultant, professional facilitator and mentor to women in business. She was formerly CEO of the Australian Institute of Management and has held executive positions in private education, professional services firms and not for profits.

Vivienne works with private companies to create the conditions and conversations in which people will contribute their best. She sits on a number of Boards including the Victorian Leaders Advisory Board and is Deputy Chair the La Boite Theatre Company. Vivienne holds a Bachelor of Law from ANU, a Graduate Diploma in Education from QUT and an MBA with Distinction from Griffith University.

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Sallyanne Atkinson AO

Advisory Board

Sallyanne started her career as a journalist and went on to become Lord Mayor of Brisbane and Special Representative for South East Asia for the Queensland Government. Sallyanne now holds several non-executive director roles for local and national organisations and companies. She was also previously the Chair of the Museum of Brisbane.

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Peter Birtles

Advisory Board

Peter Birtles is Chair of two ASX listed companies - Metcash, Australia’s leading wholesaler to independent businesses in the grocery, liquor and hardware markets and Brisbane based Universal Store Holdings, a fast growing designer, manufacturer and retailer of youth fashion. Peter is also the chair of the privately owned APG&Co which operates the Sportscraft, Saba and Jag apparel brands. He is a non executive Director of Good360 a not for profit facilitating the distribution of unsold excess goods to those in need.

Prior to his Board career, Peter worked for Super Retail Group for 18 years, initially as CFO and then 13 years as Group MD and CEO. During his time with the Group, sales grew from $150 million to $2.7 billion including the launch of the BCF business and the acquisitions of Rebel and Macpac. In recognition of the performance of the Super Retail team, Peter was recognised for his leadership including Australian CEO of the year and Retail CEO of the year.

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Stephen Copplin

Advisory Board

Stephen started his working career as an accountant and CPA. After senior executive positions with Philips and News Corporation. Stephen took on the challenge of a startup that supplied business software to the Media industry that grew to become an international industry leader.

After successfully exiting that company Stephen commenced his continuing career as an angel investor, professional company director, coach and mentor to companies in a variety of industries. Stephen was the founding CEO of I.lab, The Creative Industries Precinct accelerator and was part of the group that founded Brisbane Angels. He is the facilitator of Future Leaders in Queensland.

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John Mactaggart

Advisory Board

Mr Mactaggart’s experience spans industries such as agriculture, agri-tech, manufacturing and software. He co-founded the Australian Association of Angel Investors Limited, is a co-founder of Brisbane Angels and was the Australian representative of the World Business Angels Association. Mr Mactaggart played an integral role in the creation, funding, and development of TechnologyOne and remains a major shareholder. Mr Mactaggart has been a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors since 1991.

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James Paulsen

Advisory Board

James initially worked in investment banking and private equity for several years assisting private companies access new opportunities, capital and exit strategies. He also founded Enterprise Angels, one of the first cloud-based business angel networks in Australia. In 2006 he founded Queensland Leaders, a platform based business initiative to work with leading private companies to assist them become national and international market leaders.

After the success in Queensland, he established the Leaders business platform across Australia, New Zealand and the UK through the International Leaders business. James studied accounting at QUT and then completed an MBA with Bond University. His focus for the last 25 years has been to assist private business owners achieve their best through access to expertise, experience and inspiration.

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Marty Rowen

Advisory Board

Experienced business strategist with a demonstrated history of creating value and delivering commercially focussed solutions. Passionate about partnering with Government, clients and Industry bodies to design community centred strategies with real commercial attributes that deliver sustainable legacy outcomes.

Marty has assisted firms achieve their growth objectives by delivering on strategic plans, partnering with his extensive network and taking a holistic approach to delivering strong commercial outcomes.

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Ian Runge

Advisory Board

Ian Runge is a mining engineer and economist and the founder of Runge Limited—now ASX listed company RPM Global Holdings Ltd which he started in 1977—the world’s largest publicly traded mining technology services companies. He retired from the board in 2018 after 41 years.

Ian Runge has had active involvement in more than 120 mining projects in 10 different countries. Ian believes that if you have achieved some modicum of success then you have an obligation to pass along what you have learnt for the next generation. So, along with dozens of articles and papers on economics and technology he has subsequently written two books. His book Mining Economics and Strategy is the world’s largest selling mining textbook.

He has been on the advisory board of Queensland Leaders for 12 years, and has honorary positions as Industry Fellow in the School of Economics and Adjunct Professor in the School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering at The University of Queensland.

Industry Partners

As well-renowned companies with headquarters in Queensland, our Industry Partners provide the Leaders community with access to proven leadership and extensive experience.

Industry Experts

Our panel of Industry Experts represent leading professional services firms and provide Members with specialist knowledge, experience and mentoring support across key business disciplines.

Executive Leaders

To drive personal, professional and business growth, more established companies participate in the Executive Leaders Series, followed by ongoing involvement as part of the Alumni community.

Future Leaders

To build capability and accelerate business development, earlier-stage companies participate in the Future Leaders Series, followed by ongoing involvement as part of the Alumni community.

Alumni Members

To ensure ongoing personal and professional development as well as networking opportunities, Members have the opportunity to stay connected through the ever-growing Alumni Series.

International Leaders Network

Queensland Leaders is part of the International Leaders Group, which was established back in 2006. Our Members enjoy reciprocal rights to all International Leaders Series.