Board

Jeremy Johnson
Chair

Jeremy Johnson has been the Chief Executive Officer of Sovereign Hill, the Outdoor Heritage Museum at Ballarat, since December 2002.  Prior to taking up an appointment at Sovereign Hill in 1995, he held various senior positions within local government.

Jeremy is a member and Honorary Treasurer of the Council of Australasian Museum Directors, the immediate past President of the Board and the Executive Council of the Victorian Employers' Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Chairman of the Victorian Tourism Industry Council, Chair of the Tourism Excellence Working Group, Victoria and is Chair of Central Higlands Water.

Jeremy has been involved  with VTIC since its inception  in 2000 and has chaired it since 2006.

Wayne Kayler-Thomson
Deputy Chair

Wayne is the former Chief Executive of the Victorian Employers' Chamber of Commerce and Industry and previously the Deputy Chief Executive of Tourism Victoria, a Regional Economic Development Executive, owner/operator of a tourism business (accommodation and group tours) and a senior executive in the manufacturing industry.

Wayne is currently a company director and business advisor specialising in strategic business planning, tourism and leadership.

Wayne has over 30 years tourism industry experience at a local, regional ,state and national levels in various leadership roles and was awarded for Outstanding Contribution by an Individual in the 2010 Victorian Tourism Awards.

Julian Clark

Julian is the current CEO of The Lancemore Group. Other positions Julian holds are:

  • Melbourne Convention & Venue Bureau (MCVB) - Board
  • Victorian Tourism Industry Council (VTIC) – Board
  • Accommodation Association of Australia (AAA) – Board
  • International Association of Conference Centre’s (IACC)
    • Australian Chapter President
    • Global Board

The Lancemore Group is Victoria’s preeminent Boutique & Conference Hotel group. They own and operate four iconic hotels in Regional Victoria - Mansion Hotel & Spa at Werribee Park, Lindenwarrah at Milawa, Lindenderry at Red Hill & Lancemore Hill at Macedon Ranges. Never a group to be boxed, the Lancemore Group also run a multi-award winning winery (Lindenderry Wines).

The Lancemore Group have 6 lines of business – Conferencing, Boutique Accommodation, Functions, Restaurant, Winery & Wellness Spa. Their properties regularly feature in best-of-the-best hotel lists and are the iconic hotels of their respective regions. Their restaurants are critically acclaimed and are mainstays in the Good Food Guide, whilst Lindenderry Wines are multi-award winning and are critically acclaimed in the likes of James Halliday’s Wine Companion.

Julian joined The Lancemore Group in 2007 and in 2008 became the groups youngest CEO at 28 years of age. By 2011 The Lancemore Group had steered its way through the GFC and more than doubled its revenue through both organic growth and M&A. Julian also chairs and/or is on the board of several state, national and international industry associations. Prior to joining the Lancemore Group Julian worked in high-profile Corporate Strategy and Marketing roles for globally leading Financial Services corporations (Westpac, Royal & Sun Alliance). He was also a strategy consultant at Betfair.com, a globally leading online betting firm.

 

David Fitzpatrick

David Fitzpatrick has been at the award winning and review coveted Base Backpackers since 2004 when Accor Hotels opened Australia’s first “Flashpackers” in the heart of St Kilda. Prior to that David ran tourism operations in Queensland, Melbourne and the UK.

David spent time in Osaka, Japan on a Victorian State Government goodwill exchange program, worked as a Kitchenware seller in Brixton, a fish sorter in Portugal, a legal Secretary in Glasgow and a Bicycle mechanic in Copenhagen. He studied Politics and South East Asian studies at VUT, but it was after spending a Summer in Queensland teaching international tourists how to sail, that he knew his destiny lay in the travel industry.

David served as the former Chair of the Backpacker Operators Alliance of Victoria and is the current General Manager of Base St Kilda.

Roger Grant

Roger Grant is the Executive Director of the regional tourism body Geelong Otway Tourism (Hall of Fame 1999 Victorian Tourism Awards) and is also currently a director of Great Southern Touring Route (Victorian Tourism Awards winner 2000).

In 2004, Roger was awarded the Victorian Tourism Award for Outstanding Contribution By An Individual.

Prior to his present position, Roger was the Tourism Manager for what is now Parks Victoria for seven years. During this time Roger was awarded both Anzac and Churchill fellowships to study tourism issues in North America and New Zealand.

Roger has a Master of Arts degree from the University of Alberta Canada in addition to Education and Physical Education Degrees.

Roger has served as a board member for Tourism Alliance Victoria and now currently sits on the VTIC Board.

Peter Jones

Peter Jones is one of Australia’s leading event producers who has been creating special events for over 25 years.

Peter is a regular contributor to the events industry recently having been President of the Melbourne Chapter of the International Special Events Society. Peter is also a board member of Destination Melbourne and on the advisory board for the Moomba Celebrations.

Peter and his team have been the recipient of 21 Meeting and Event Industry Awards, culminating in their induction into the Hall of Fame in 2005 for best Special Event Organiser. Since its inception in 1991, Peter Jones Special Events (PJSE) has produced over 1000 events both in Australia and overseas. Some of these events have included:

  • Grand Prix Balls
  • AFL Grand Final Parade and Pre Match Entertainment
  • Centenary of Federation Celebrations
  • Opening of Melbourne Museum
  • Prime Minister’s Olympic Dinners
  • Queens Reception for the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games
Laura Miles

Laura is the Executive Director of Museums Australia (Victorian branch), working in a team of 12 to support over 700 museums across the state including 70 in the prestigious Museums Accreditation Program, recognised by the green ‘tourism tick’ across Victorian tourism print and online collateral.

Since 2008, Laura has developed tourist trails of Accredited museums, an increased media profile for museums and museum campaigns, and the Victorian Collections project, a state-wide digitisation initiative to increase access and awareness of museum collections in partnership with Museum Victoria and the Victorian Cultural Network.  She has delivered economic benefits to regional Victoria via grants programs and the annual Victorian museums conference, and generated $3m of economic benefit to Melbourne tourism bodies as the host city of the 2010 national museums conference.

Before migrating from the UK to Australia, Laura was one of the founding directors of the multilingual science and arts news service www.alphagalileo.org, cited as one of the “100 most useful websites” by The Guardian newspaper in 2006.  Alongside her role at VTIC she is also a board member of the Arts Industry Council Victoria, the History Council of Victoria and the Cultural Heritage & Museum Studies department at Deakin University.  Laura qualified as a Chartered Director (C Dir) with the Institute of Directors in 2008 and has been a member of the Cranlana network of ethical business leaders since 2010.

Matthew Noble

With qualifications from William Angliss Institute in Hospitality Management, Matthew pursued a career in the restaurant industry which led him to a passion for wine and culinary tourism. Matthew has also toured many of the world’s renowned food and wine destinations over a number of years.

Matthew, who is the Director of Australian Wine Tour Company has previously been involved on a number of boards and committees including:

  • Destination Yarra Valley Dandenong Ranges Tourism
  • Commonwealth Games 2006 - Backpacker Reference Advisory Group / Tourism Victoria
  • Backpacker Operators Association of Victoria
  • Yarra Ranges Regional Marketing Limited
  • Victorian Food & Wine Tourism Council

Matthew is active within the industry and also freely gives up his time to act as a mentor to a number of tourism operators. He was a director of Tourism Alliance Victoria for four years, three of those as Chair. Matthew is also an invited representative for tourism operators on the Tourism Excellence Steering Committee.

The Australian Wine Tour Company has been a supporter of VTIC and prior to that, Tourism Alliance Victoria and VTOA as a member since 1999. Other memberships include VECCI, Australian Sommeliers Association and the Australian Tourism Export Tourism Council. The Australian Wine Tour Company has also been a winner at the 2004 Victorian Tourism Awards receiving the Significant Tour & Transport Operator Award. Other achievements include Certificate of Accreditation with the Better Business Tourism Accreditation Program (now ATAP), Department of Infrastructure Bus Operations and Parks Victoria. The Australian Wine Tour Company were also winners of the 2006 Great Wine Capitals of World ‘Best of Award’ for services to Wine Tourism.

Matt is passionate about the tourism industry and ensuring the highest professionalism standards are maintained and looks forward to being involved with VTIC as a leading industry provider of professional services.