Caption: Former resident Bob McCarthy is a recipient of Member of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the Queen’s Birthday honours list.
FORMER Armidale High School Captain and UNE Honours Graduate, Bob McCarthy is a recipient of Member of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the Queen’s Birthday honours list.
Mr McCarthy was honoured for ‘significant service to public administration in Queensland, particularly in the areas of eco development, agriculture and natural resources management.’
Mr McCarthy now lives in Brisbane with his wife Jacquie and daughter Emilie; he is the son of the late Labor Member for Northern Tablelands, Bill McCarthy and Thelma McCarthy (AM).
Bob McCarthy has spent the past 30 years in senior positions in both the public and private sectors. He has held senior positions with the Australian Government where he was a trade negotiator for several years working on improving access for Australian agricultural and mineral commodities in the world market.
Mr McCarthy has been Director General of several Queensland Government Departments including the Department of Natural Resources and Mines and the Department of State Development and Innovation.
He has been at the forefront of efforts to diversify the Queensland economy and develop new industries, based on science and innovation.
He also played a principal role in major changes in the Queensland Sugar Industry and in the Meat processing sector in Queensland.
In July 2009, Mr McCarthy joined the University of Queensland as Adjunct Professor in the Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology and is a senior advisor to the Vice Chancellor of the University of Queensland.
He is also the currently the Chair of Cape York Health and Hospital Service, a Director of the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, Chair the Griffith University Aviation Advisory Board and a Director of Nanum Tawup Pty Ltd (an Indigenous saw-milling and cement block manufacturing business in Napranum near Weipa.)
