LGAQ President and Sunshine Coast Council Mayor Mark Jamieson has been named the University of Southern Queensland Community Service Alumnus of the year for his career in publishing, local government and non-profit advocacy.
“My time at USQ helped to open a wider horizon for me and helped cement my very firm belief that in senior leadership roles, we should always strive to not only do well but do good,” Mayor Jamieson said.
It is what our communities expect of us – we should expect nothing less of ourselves.
This has been the approach I have taken throughout my career both in the private sector and in public office - both as Mayor of the Sunshine Coast Council and President of the Local Government Association of Queensland.”
After graduating from University of Southern Queensland in 1996 Mark spent two decades in senior roles in media and publishing and was appointed Chief Executive of APN Australian Publishing in 2006, where he was accountable for over $1 billion of newspaper assets and led the major print media outlet servicing regional Queensland.
Mark was first elected in 2012 as Mayor of the Sunshine Coast Council, the fifth largest local government in Australia and serving a community of 300,000 people. Under Mark’s leadership, the region has been rated as having the second strongest performing economy in Queensland; unemployment rates have been lowered by more than half; household income levels are now close to the State average; and the region has achieved national recognition for several of its environmental programs.
In 2016, after being re-elected as the Sunshine Coast Mayor with a strong community mandate, Mark was elected as President of the Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ).
Mark actively supports a number of not for profit organisations including domestic-abuse prevention organisation White Ribbon, Sunnykids, Surf Life Saving Queensland and the Beacon Foundation which assists in providing youth education and employment opportunities.
The 2017 USQ Outstanding Alumnus of the Year Award will be announced on the 25th of August.