Board

Tourism Queensland's board of directors was established under the Tourism Queensland Act 1979. The board of directors is a statutory body under the Statutory Bodies Financial Arrangements Act 1982 and the Financial Administration and Audit Act 1977. The board of directors is comprised of nine industry representatives from around the State. The Chairman and board members are appointed by, and responsible to, the Minister for Tourism, Manufacturing and Small Business, the Honourable Jan Jarratt MP.

About Our Board Members

Tourism Queensland's board members come from a range of backgrounds, equipping them to provide expert guidance to Queensland's tourism industry.

Mr Don Morris AO
Chairman

Don has spent his long career in advertising, brand building and public company directorships, specialising in tourism. Don was a founding principal of the Mojo Australia advertising agency in 1979. Mojo was responsible for many iconic brand advertising campaigns, including the long running “I still call Australia home” for Qantas, the Paul Hogan “Shrimp on the barbie” international campaign for the Australian Tourist Commission, Australian Airlines from its launch in 1986 until its eventual acquisition by Qantas, “Too good to be true” for Mirage Resorts and “Come on Aussie c’mon” for World Series Cricket. Mojo won the “Advertising agency of the year” award a record four times in seven years and was awarded “international agency of the year” by America’s Advertising Age. Don was a founding director of the tourism industry’s peak advocacy group, The Tourism Taskforce (now known as the Tourism and Transport Forum) and is a life member of its board of governors. He was Chairman of the Sydney 2000 Community Support committee and a member of the Sydney 2000 Communications Commission for the Sydney 2000 Olympics bid. In 1993 he was appointed to the board of the Australian Tourist Commission (now Tourism Australia) and served two terms as Chairman. Don was appointed an Officer in the Order of Australia (AO) in 2002 for services to tourism and holds a Bachelor of Economics from Monash University. Past board directorships and statutory authority boards include Mojo MDA Group Limited, R M Williams Holdings Ltd (the Australian bushman’s apparel company), Tourism Assets Holdings Limited, Chairman of the Australian Tourist Commission, Port Douglas Reef Resorts Ltd (hotel owners and tourism operators in North Queensland), PMP Ltd (Australia’s largest printing and media services company) and Deputy Chairman of Harvey World Travel Ltd. Present board directorships and statutory authority boards include Chairman Tourism Queensland (appointed 2007), Hamilton Island Enterprises Ltd (appointed 2006), Ausflag Ltd, The Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens Foundation (appointed 2006) and The Sport and Tourism Youth Foundation (appointed 1988).

Ms Julieanne Alroe
Deputy Chairman

Julieanne is the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Brisbane Airport Corporation.  Prior to this appointment, she developed extensive experience within the aviation industry holding a number of roles at Sydney Airport Corporation including executive management positions in the commercial, operations, corporate affairs, and planning and infrastructure departments.  Julieanne currently holds board positions with Brisbane Airport Corporation Pty Limited, Australia TradeCoast and the International Grammar School in Sydney and Queensland Theatre Company.  Julieanne was appointed to the Tourism Queensland Board on 2 September 2010.

Mr Adrian Bram

Adrian Bram has spent the last 26 years in Public and Private Sector leadership positions within the Australian Tourism Industry, based on a career in corporate communication, strategic planning, marketing and business management that spans 34 years. He has held corporate board positions and active marketing and senior management roles within the Queensland Tourism Industry since 1996. Add to this eight years in senior roles and oversees postings with the Western Australian Tourism Commission, giving him a broad mix of corporate and public sector experience. He currently holds the post of Vice Chairman of Tourism Whitsundays and has held a seat on the TW Board since 2008. In June 2011 he took up the position of General Manager of Cumberland Charter Yachts in the Whitsundays.

Mr Grant Cassidy

Grant is a leading tourism and hospitality owner/operator in Central Queensland specialising in accommodation and food and beverage. Grant has a strong media and marketing background having had a 15 year commercial radio career, working in Brisbane, Central Queensland, Mackay, the Whitsundays and Cairns. Grant is Chairman of Capricorn Tourism, Deputy Chairman of Rockhampton Girls Grammar School and is a member of the Council of Central Queensland University.

Ms Pamela Hardgrave

Pamela lives and works on Lillydale Farmstay, a family run business that is a member of Ecotourism Australia's accreditation scheme and currently holds Advanced Ecotourism status. She is co-owner of a beef cattle property and a director Lillydale, one Queensland's elite 'Hall of Fame' tourism award winners. Pam is a well-known tourism identity and active member of the tourism industry and local Scenic Rim community in south-east Queensland. A Telstra Business Women's Award winner, she was recently recognised for leadership in the Aussie Host Program, the first business in Queensland to attain this milestone.

Mr Tony Baker

Tony is Quicksilver Managing Director, a pioneering reef tourism operator, which is Australia's leading Great Barrier Reef cruise company and one of North Queensland's largest private employers. Tony was formerly the Group's General Manager of Corporate Services and is currently a Chair for the Australian Marine Park Tourism Operators (AMPTO), and a board member for the Alliance of Sustainable Tourism and GBRMPA's Tourism Reef Recreation Advisory Committee. Tony has an extensive background in tourism, specifically tour and attraction based products in Queensland.

Mr Peter Savoff

Peter’s knowledge and involvement in the tourism accommodation sector is extensive, having worked in this industry for over 20 years. Currently Peter is in the role of General Manager - Hotels at the Anthony John Group, an award-winning Queensland based property developer. The Group’s new Hotels Division was launched in 2006 to build a collection of high-end, boutique hotels. The Emporium Hotel in Brisbane, which opened in June 2007 being the first, has already won mutiple industry awards, including Best Small Luxury Hotel, Gourmet Traveller Travel Awards Australia 2009. Peter has a Master of Commercial Law and a Master of Business Administration.

Dr Peter Lynch

Peter is principal of dci lyncon, a Brisbane-based professional services consultancy, and also acts as an independent company director. He has hands-on marketing experience at the researcher, Product Manager, and Marketing Director levels including exposure to product categories including food, financial services, accounting, legal, project homes, transport and resort islands.

Ms Danielle Duell

Danielle’s tourism experience extends across accommodation, food and wine, spa tourism, adventure tourism, ecotourism and indigenous experiences.  She has worked in the industry as an entrepreneur, owner-operator, consultant and executive.  Danielle now works as Chief Executive Officer of the Gainsdale Group which is a diversified portfolio of privately owned companies including the award winning Spicers Retreats, Hotels & Lodges group and a variety of other interests ranging from designer fashion to nature refuges.  Amongst other projects, prior to her current role Danielle co-founded Riverlife - an adventure centre, riverfront venue and provider of indigenous experiences in Brisbane.  Danielle has completed a Master of Business Administration and recently won a scholarship to study at Harvard Business School..

Board Responsibilities

Working with senior management, the board of directors is responsible for Tourism Queensland's overall performance. It approves goals and directions, strategic plans and performance targets. The board of directors ensures appropriate policies, procedures and systems are in place to optimise performance, maintain high standards of ethical behaviour and provide leadership to Queensland's tourism industry.

Board Performance

As part of its ongoing commitment to achieving best practice corporate governance, Tourism Queensland is developing a formal and transparent process for assessing and evaluating the performance of Tourism Queensland's board of directors, including individual directors.

Between board meetings, there is continuing contact between the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer to discuss major policy and operational matters, especially when such matters are the subject of board interest, or are likely to become so. The Chairman also meets with senior management to discuss strategy and operational issues.

Regular board papers inform board members of current and forthcoming strategic issues relevant to Tourism Queensland's operations and performance. These papers contain the year-to-date financial performance of all departments and include updates and/or strategic issues relevant to all divisions of the organisation.

Audit Committee

The primary role of the Audit Committee is to provide assistance to the board of directors in fulfilling its corporate governance and oversight responsibilities in relation to Tourism Queensland's financial reporting, internal control structure, risk management systems and the internal and external audit functions. The Committee regularly reports to the board of directors on its activities and recommendations. Its key responsibilities include to:

• Maintain free and open communication between the Committee, external auditors, internal auditors and management of Tourism Queensland.
• Understand the organisation's structure, controls and types of transactions in order to adequately assess the significant risks it faces.
• Oversee the financial reporting process on behalf of the board of directors.
• Assess the adequacy and effectiveness of the accounting and financial controls, including the policies and procedures to assess, monitor and manage business risk and legal and ethical compliance programs.
• Make recommendations to the board of directors on the appointment, reappointment or replacement, remuneration, monitoring of the effectiveness and independence of the internal auditors.
• Consult with the external and internal auditors regarding the scope of plans of audit.
• Review the auditors' recommendations and monitor their implementation.

Two board members are appointed to the Audit Committee by the Board. The non-board member on the Audit Committee is Mr Mark Bermingham, Executive Director Tourism, Food and Wine Industry Development, Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation. Management representatives attend by invitation of the committee and include the Chief Executive Officer, Executive Director Business Performance and Planning and the Director Finance.

The organisation's internal auditors, Ernst and Young and the Queensland Audit Office, are also represented at the meetings. The Committee holds four meetings each year with full minutes being kept and full reports made to the board of directors. Ernst and Young are the internal auditors and WHK Horwarth are the Queensland Audit Office outsourced external auditor.