Sallyanne Atkinson is Special Representative for Queensland, South East Asia in the Queensland Government. She is currently a Director of several public companies and associations and was Deputy Mayor of the Olympic Village for Sydney 2000. She is a former Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Australian Senior Trade Commissioner to Paris, and former Chairman of Queensland Tourism.

As directly-elected Lord Mayor of Australia’s largest local authority, with a billion-dollar Budget and a workforce of 7000, Sallyanne was responsible for major structural and fiscal reforms in the Council and a change of image and attitude for the City.

Internationally she has represented Australia to the International Olympic Committee, in major trade and business forums such as the OECD and the International Chamber of Commerce and spoken at conferences in Europe, Asia and the United States.

She was the Leader of the Brisbane bid for the Olympics of 1992, a member of the Melbourne and Sydney Olympic bidding committees and was a founding member of the Committee to Organise the Games in 2000.

A journalist by training, she has written two books on Brisbane and numerous articles for newspapers and magazines.