ROB NELSON
Chief Executive Officer
Rob is an accomplished executive with over 30 years of industry experience spanning sport, major events, business events, tourism & destination marketing, venue management, economic development, and aviation.
Rob’s professional career started with surf lifesaving in South Australia before heading to Sydney to manage the professional Ironman/Ironwoman circuit which lead him to join SOCOG (Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games). As a senior member of the venue operations team, he become Venue Manager for the Sydney Superdome (now Qudos Bank Arena) for the Sydney Olympic and Paralympic Games. Rob returned to Adelaide following the Games, to lead Events SA’s (part of the South Australian Tourism Commission) events portfolio which included the Santos Tour Down Under, International Horse Trials and Classic Adelaide Rally along with leading the host city agreement for the 2003 Rugby World Cup. He went on to become SA Rugby’s first CEO where he secured the rights to host a round of the IRB Sevens in Adelaide.
Following Rugby, Rob moved to the world of AFL where he held executive roles at the SANFL, Port Adelaide and Glenelg Football Clubs. Ambition and sun lured Rob and his family to Brisbane where he joined the Brisbane Economic Development Agency initially to lead the Convention Bureau before being promoted to COO. Rob has since tasted the world of aviation as Chief Commercial Officer with Alliance Airlines before taking on a consultancy role with AusCycling to lead a review into their events portfolio. Rob joined MI Global Partners as CEO in July 2023.
Building a reputation for being driven, building teams and developing strategy to deliver tangible outcomes, his areas of expertise include strategy design & execution; personal & professional development; operational planning & process improvement; change management & organisational realignment; galvanising teams around united purpose; stakeholder engagement; and marketing & brand strategy. Rob is also an accredited facilitator and has chaired or participated in several taskforces across the sport, tourism and related industries.
Core to Rob’s journey to date has been resilience and embracing a growth mindset, always seeking ways to improve the organisations he has worked with and leaving a positive impression on peers and colleagues.
Outside of work, sport is Rob’s passion. As an accomplished surf lifesaver and canoeist in his earlier years - he’s swapped the paddle for a bike in his later years enjoying competing in masters cycling or simply hitting the trails with friends on his gravel or mountain bike.