Andrew Liveris has been appointed president of the Brisbane 2032 Organising Committee board which in partnership with Brisbane City Council will deliver the Summer Olympic games to the city in 10 years’ time and will ensure among other things opportunities for Australian businesses in projects relating to the games.
The appointment of Mr Liveris, chairman of the Hellenic Initiative and a former CEO and chairman of Dow Chemicals, was announced along with those of the last five members of the organising committee which now consists of 21 members.
Olympic news site insidethegames.biz reported that Mr Liveris was already known to the International Olympic Committee through his past association to the games when Dow had The Olympic Sponsor (TOP) status.
Mr Liveris, who is chairman of Lucid Motors (specialising in electric cars) and is a senior member of asset manager of Black Rock, has served as an advisor to Australian prime minister Scott Morrison and had advisory roles under former US Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama.
His appointment to Brisbane 2032 was supported by the president of the Australian Olympic Committee and IOC vice-president John Coates.
“He (Mr Liveris) adds tremendous value and international credibility,” said Mr Coates who is also a vice president of of Brisbane 2032 along with Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, Federal Minister of Sport Richard Colbeck, Paralympic Australia President Jock O’Callaghan and Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner.
Mr Liveris who was named Kastellorizian of the Year 2021, was born in Darwin, the grandson of a Greek immigrant and he has maintained strong links to his Greek heritage. His family moved to Brisbane in the wake of the Cyclone Tracy. He gained a first-class honours in Chemical Engineering from the University of Queensland. After graduating, he joined Dow in Melbourne in 1976.
He went on to spend 14 years in Hong Kong, became general manager for Dow in Thailand before heading the company in the Asia-Pacific region.
In February 2004, he was appointed to the Dow board of directors and became its CEO in November that year. He was appointed chairman of the board on 1 April, 2006. He was also a former Executive Chairman of DowDuPont. He retired from executive positions in 2018. He serves on the boards of a number of international companies.
The recipient of numerous international business and industry awards, Mr Liveris was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia in January 2014. He is also the author of Make it in America: The Case for Re-Inventing the Economy.
