Queensland Business Leaders’ Hall of Fame Induction Dinner 2017

Chair, Mr Ken MacDonald, and members of the Governing Committee; Chancellor, Mr Tim Fairfax; Vice-Chancellor, Professor Peter Coaldrake; all other distinguished guests – and there are so many of you, including from other Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame founding partners, the State Library, Ms Vicki McDonald, and the Queensland Library Foundation Council, Mr Max Walters; ladies and gentlemen.

It is a great pleasure to join you once again in celebration of the crucial role played by entrepreneurs and not-for-profit leaders in our State’s development and prosperity.

In the annals of our State’s history, the contribution of business has been under-explored and sometimes understated.

Since 2009, the Business Leaders Hall of Fame initiative has been redressing that deficit, bringing important business achievements into the spotlight. The Hall of Fame Fellowship and Business History Award contribute further to that goal.

The 60 inductees already in the Hall of Fame cover an impressive range of products and services – from funeral services to vast pastoral empires, from world-class medical research to the world’s best tinned pineapple.

Tonight we add to that number, and that variety, with the induction of a further six people and organisations into the Hall of Fame.

Tonight’s inductees illustrate, once more, the tremendous vision, commitment, energy and business nous needed to succeed in the business and not-for-profit sectors.   

This year’s inductees include a well-known name in the engineering sector, a prominent figure in property development and tourism, and a highly successful company in an industry that is relatively young.   

Inductees also include a company in the wellness field that was founded in the 1930s, and a not-for-profit organisation that has harnessed ground-breaking Australian technology to change the lives of Queenslanders.  

And we have an inductee whose products have been known and loved by cooks all over Australia for well over a century. 

All have brought economic progress, jobs and many other benefits to their communities, including communities in regional Queensland.

We look forward to hearing their names and their tremendous achievements shortly. 

But first I take this opportunity to thank the members of the Hall of Fame Governing Committee for their hard work in identifying inductees.  

I thank and congratulate the Hall of Fame founding partners – QUT, the Queensland Library Foundation, the State Library of Queensland, the Queensland Government, and all other Hall of Fame partners, for their strong support.

I thank tonight’s inductees for their wonderful contributions to Queensland, and I congratulate them on the great honour of being inducted into the Hall of Fame tonight.

Thank you.