Chairman, Australian Environment International
Chair of Sustainability Advisory Committee, University of the Sunshine Coast

After two careers: establishing the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service and the Environmental Protection Agency, and Principal Environmental Adviser to Australia’s largest corporate landholder (AMP Society), Hugh Lavery is now tackling the most sensitive of interfaces between the environment and development—marinas.

He is the Executive Adviser to Meridien Marinas—building the largest marinas in the Southern Hemisphere adjacent to the Queensland coastline’s major World Heritage Areas—Great Barrier Reef, Wet Tropics, Fraser Island, and Gondwana Rain Forests. His roles include being the Adjunct Professor of Environmental Systems for the national Institute for Sustainable Resources, Queensland University of Technology, and being the Chairperson for the statutory Community Reference Group for the largest private sector development in Queensland (Port of Airlie).

Among the posts he has held during his fifty year career are: President of the Royal Society of Queensland, Member of the Council of the National Trust of Queensland, Member of the Board of Directors of Greening Australia (Queensland), Member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of WorldWide Fund for Nature (Australia); Executive Producer in the Australian Broadcasting Commission; Adjunct Professor of Land Development & Environmental Planning at Texas A & M University (USA); Member of the Bureau of Presidents of the First International Conference on the Environment (UNESCO, Belgium); and Chief Consultant to National Geographic Society (USA).

He has had wide array of professional experience in eastern Asia, North America, and Western Europe. More recently, Hugh has been Chair of Assessment Panels and Member, Fellowship Review Committee, EIANZ Environmental Practitioners’ Certification Program.

His principal awards include: