Our Board

Australia TradeCoast’s board is comprised of an independent Chairman and leading representatives from the organisation’s four shareholding partners.

Australia TradeCoast's strategic partners include the Port of Brisbane Pty Ltd, Brisbane Airport Corporation, Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation and Brisbane City Council – Brisbane Marketing.

Chairman:

Australia TradeCoast Chairman, David Harrison, has 23 years experience serving on a variety of private and public sector boards. David was Chairman of the Port of Brisbane Pty Ltd from 2005-2010, previously he was Deputy Chairman for six years. He is also the Chairman of Australia TradeCoast Limited and QMI Solutions Pty Ltd, as well as a Director of Brisbane Airport Corporation Pty Ltd. David has recently been appointed as a Director of Queensland Electricity Transmission Corporation Limited (Powerlink) and he will be Chairman from 2012. David also has 30 years experience in industrial relations, having previously served as Queensland Secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union and Honorary President of the Queensland Council of Unions.

Board Members:

Trade and Investment Queensland’s Managing Director, Rob Whiddon, has been appointed to the position since January 2010 after originally being appointed General Manager of Trade Queensland on 7 February 2008. As Managing Director he is tasked with leading the state government’s economic development goals in relation to investment attraction and assisting companies achieve export success. Prior to his appointment to Trade Queensland, Rob was Chief of Staff to the former Premier of Queensland and Minister for Trade, the Honourable Peter Beattie MP, from 1998 to 2007. As Chief of Staff to former Premier Beattie, Rob’s responsibilities included trade policy matters, since the Premier was also Minister for Trade. During the term of the Goss Government in Queensland from 1990 to 1996, Rob was Senior Ministerial Policy Advisor to the Honourable David Hamill, Minister for Transport and Minister Assisting the Premier on Economic and Trade Development and subsequently Minister for Education. He was later Chief of Staff to the Queensland Opposition Leader, Peter Beattie from 1996 to 1998. Rob was Deputy General Manager of Royce MS&L, a national public relations and government relations firm, based in Sydney in 1988 to 89. During that time he won a national award from the Public Relations Institute of Australia for directing a national public relations campaign on behalf of a group of employee-based health insurance funds for Royce. From 1984 to 1988, Rob was Assistant Private Secretary and later Private Secretary to the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Honourable Bill Hayden.

Brisbane Airport Corporation Pty Limited Managing Director & CEO, Julieanne Alroe, B.Ec., MAICD, was appointed to the position in July 2009. In addition to this role, Julieanne currently holds board positions with Brisbane Airport Corporation Pty Limited, Australia TradeCoast, the International Grammar School in Sydney, Tourism Queensland (TQ) and Queensland Theatre Company (QTC). Julieanne has also been appointed Deputy Chairperson of the Tourism Queensland Board in October 2011 until 31 October 2012. Prior to this recent appointment, Julieanne developed extensive experience within the aviation industry after holding a number of roles at Sydney Airport Corporation. These roles included executive management positions in the commercial, operations, corporate affairs, and planning and infrastructure departments. Previous board appointments include the position of chairman of Airports Coordination Australia Ltd and Airports Council International Safety and Technical Standing Committee. Julieanne has a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Queensland and is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Brisbane City Council Chief Executive, Colin Jensen is the Chief Executive of the largest local government in Australia.  Brisbane City Council has an annual budget of $2.9 billion, an asset base of $22.5 billion and serves a population of 1.1 million people. Colin oversees the delivery of Council’s key initiatives in the pursuit of its Living in Brisbane 2026 vision.  Prior to joining Council in August 2010, Colin had a successful career in the Queensland Government, most recently as the Coordinator-General and Director-General of the Department of Infrastructure and Planning. In these roles, Colin was responsible for overseeing the delivery of the largest infrastructure program in Queensland’s history, modernising the State’s planning and development system, reforming Queensland’s local government system and shaping a new organisation following departmental restructure in 2007.  As the key infrastructure program manager, he presided over a capital program of $18.2 billion – a record for any Australian government. Colin is a director of several boards including CitySmart, the TransLink Transit Authority, the City of Brisbane Investment Corporation and the Brisbane Institute. For the fourth year running, Colin was named one of Australia's top 100 most influential engineers by Civil Engineers Australia magazine. Colin has also received the QUT Chancellor’s Outstanding Alumni Award and the Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering Outstanding Alumni Award for 2011. Colin holds a Bachelor of Civil Engineering (Honours).

Brisbane City Council Chief Legal Officer, David Askern, currently manages Council’s internal legal service provider, Brisbane City Legal Practice. That practice provides all of Council’s legal services and is the largest internal local government legal services provider in Australia having 25 lawyers and 13 support staff. David has over 20 years of experience in all aspects of the law with particular emphasis on drafting and interpretation of legislation affecting local government, commercial contracting, industrial relations (including enterprise bargaining, environmental and planning laws, local government procedures, property developments and town planning particularly. David joined Council as solicitor in 1993 and progressed to Manager in 1999. Prior to joining Council David worked for a leading Gold Coast legal firm specialising in town planning and major developments such as shopping centres, resort hotels and apartment buildings.

As Chief Executive Office of Brisbane Marketing, the city’s economic development agency, John Aitken is an industry leader with extensive experience and proven success in leading major events and marketing some iconic Australian projects. He is also a member of a number of prominent boards and committees including: Australia TradeCoast; Australian Association of Convention Bureau, Brisbane City Council Sister Cities Advisory Group, the Asia Pacific Cities Summit Steering Committee and the Brisbane City Council’s Mall Advisory Committee. Between 1980 and 2007, John’s major events company has delivered more than 1,000 events including Brisbane’s Riverfestival, raising over $200 million in revenue via sponsorship, government funding and sales and attracting more than 25 million people to enjoy his work. Prior to joining Brisbane Marketing, John was General Manager Events and Marketing for the Sydney Royal Easter Show.  

Port of Brisbane Pty Ltd Chief Executive Officer, Russell Smith, is an experienced port and transport executive with an engineering degree and an MBA specialising in strategic management. His initial career was spent in the engineering sector with a particular focus on the design and construction of port infrastructure works in Australasia and the UK. Following the completion of his MBA, he concentrated on the provision of business planning, management consulting and M&A advisory services for the port industry worldwide before moving into the direct acquisition of port assets to build one of Europe’s largest port holdings for Prime Infrastructure. Following this, he moved into an asset management role, with responsibility for Prime Infrastructure’s (recently acquired by Brookfield) global portfolio of transport assets.