Qld Govt struggles to find new Chief Entrepreneur
Will the last person at the Office of Queensland Chief Entrepreneur please turn out the lights? We hear the State Government is having a difficult time filling the unpaid role.
City Beat
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Will the last person at the Office of Queensland Chief Entrepreneur please turn out the lights? We hear the State Government is having a difficult time filling the unpaid role after Leanne Kemp left last year.
The office’s director Craig O’Kane departed last month to take up a role at Kemp’s Everledger, the blockchain company that tracks the provenance of high-value assets. That has left lots of empty desks at what is supposed to be a hub of innovation.
City Beat spies tell us that several entrepreneurs have been approached to take on the role, but the person they really want is wavering now that O’Kane has left.
Red Eye founder Wayne Gerard is believed to be one of the people approached but he declined to comment to City Beat yesterday.
Gerard said the business community still believed having a chief entrepreneur was a good idea to nurture upcoming talent but the role needed to be broadened.
The State Government announced earlier this year that it was revamping the $755 million government office with the inclusion of an “advisory council” under its Advance Queensland program. Innovation Minister Stirling Hinchliffe said the council is in development with a “lead entrepreneur, corporate representatives, universities, venture capital and ambassadors representing all parts of the new economy to help start-ups and scale-ups with knowledge and networks”. The office was initially launched by the Palaszczuk government in 2016 to “cement Queensland’s reputation as a global innovation hotspot.”
The inaugural chief entrepreneur was former Blue Sky founder Mark Sowerby followed by well-known investor and Shark Tank presenter Steve Baxter and then Ms Kemp.
A spokesman for Mr Hinchliffe said the process of finding a new chief entrepreneur was ongoing.
The State Government insists the office remains open.
JOBS GALORE
CASINO giant Star Entertainment has revealed where it needs hundreds more workers as the tourism sector awakens from its COVID-19 slumber.
Star boss Matt Bekier said there are almost 700 roles open across the company, mostly food and beverage attendants, chefs, bartenders and gaming room workers.
Bekier says that does not include the thousands of workers that will be required in the future for the $3.6b Queen’s Wharf integrated resort in Brisbane that opens from next year.
Currently there are 100 roles open in Brisbane, 380 in Sydney and 159 on the Gold Coast. About 57 jobs are available in corporate roles across Star’s three casino properties. So if you can serve a latte or know your way around a roulette table get in line.
Queensland has emerged as a bright spot for Star, which like most tourist operators was hit hard by the pandemic shutdown last year.
We hear Brisbane’s Treasury Hotel has almost no room vacancies at the moment as domestic tourists fill the gap left by international tourists.
Both Brisbane and the Gold Coast posted record revenues in May with restaurants at the Star Gold Coast preparing more meals than before Covid.
Bekier said there is a need to reopen borders as quickly as possible so recruitment of much needed workers could extend overseas.
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