DES POWER AM
CHAIRMAN
Des Power’s career covers journalism, film, television and business in Australia and abroad. His early career began in journalism including owning and editing a motoring magazine. In Britain he worked for the British Motor Corporation and the central executive staff of British Leyland Motor Corporation as a senior public affairs executive – business and finance.
He joined the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1969 and worked as a reporter, producer and executive producer on a number of programs including the radio current affairs programs AM and PM and This Day Tonight and Four Corners on television.
He was appointed a foreign correspondent for the ABC in 1974 covering Western Europe, the Middle East and Persian Gulf and covered events such as the revolution in Portugal and the collapse of dictatorship in Greece.
He returned to Australia in 1980 to form his own production company, Tripod, to produce the original Today Tonight for Channel 9, a nightly public affairs program.
The prime-time investigative program and its staffers won several national awards including Logies. Des has also won international awards for documentaries and feature film.
In 2005, he was appointed by the Australian Government to create and produce the commemorative event for the 90th anniversary of the ANZAC landing at Gallipoli, Turkey. He continues as creative director/producer for future years and is producing a documentary for ABC on the making of a symphony for the 100th anniversary of the ANZAC landing on Gallipoli.
In the Queen’s Birthday Honours of 2006, he was awarded an AM in the Order of Australia “for service to tourism development through the identification, facilitation and promotion of major sporting and cultural events, and to the film, television and broadcasting industries and to community.”
In October 2006, he was appointed an Adjunct Professor, Griffith University School of Business.
Des Power’s films include the feature Dear Claudia (co-producer, Gold Award, Arizona Film Festival, starring Bryan Brown and Aleksandra Vujcic)) and the highly successful telemovie The Love of Lionel’s Life (writer / co-producer).
Current films in development include the UK-Australia co-production The Song they Sing in Heaven, which he has written, and Our Son, a Turkey/Australia co-production with Barbar Films (producer Ugur Dervish).
Current positions include –
· Chairman – Asia Pacific Screen Awards Ltd
· Director – Pacific Film & Television Commission
· Chairman – The Swift Group
· Director – Brisbane Cruise Wharf Pty Ltd, a Brookfield Multiplex subsidiary.
· Senior advisor - George Patterson Y&R, Brisbane
· Senior advisor – Rowland and member of Advisory Board
· Chairman – Griffith Business School Industry Advisory Board – Tourism,
Real Estate, Property, Hotel & Sport Management - Griffith University.
· Member of the Board of Trustees, Partners for Livable Communities,
Washington DC.
· Associate Member – Queensland Smithsonian Alumni
· Member - Australian Institute of Company Directors
· Vice Patron - Surf Life Saving, Queensland
Former positions include –
· Chairman – Queensland Events Corporation
· Reporter, producer, foreign correspondent, executive producer –
ABC Television
· Executive Producer – Today Tonight – Channel Nine.
· Director of the Brisbane Visitors and Convention Bureau
· Board member - Starlight Children’s Foundation
· Chairman - Queensland Events Corporation
· Deputy chairman of the 2001 Goodwill Games Brisbane
· Chairman - Brisbane International Film Festival
· Chairman - Film Queensland, the state government’s former film
development agency (now Pacific Film & Television Commission)
· Member – National Council, Medical Benefits Fund
· Executive Producer – Click on Ten, Network Ten
· Member of the Queensland Commemorative Events & Celebrations
Committee.