About Queensland Leaders

Vivienne Anthon

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.

Sallyanne Atkinson AO

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. And previously the Chair of the Museum of Brisbane.

Peter Birtles

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.

Stephen Copplin

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.

John Mactaggart

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.

James Paulsen

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.

Marty Rowen

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.

Ian Runge

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.