40 ALI DAVENPORT

AFTER more than 15 years driving growth in the media landscape, Ali Davenport is putting her industry experience to work promoting the needs of business and developing their capacity to deliver.

With Toowoomba on the cusp of major infrastructure projects like the Inland Rail and while agitating for projects under the Toowoomba and Surat Basin board-backed list of priorities, Mrs Davenport is leading the charge, lobbying governments and private enterprise for engagement and investment.

The TSBE CEO took the reins earlier this year and has set about building on the export and expansion potential of innovative businesses in the organisation’s footprint from the Garden City to Roma.

Her career in radio has seen her working away from Toowoomba at sites on the Gold Coast, Mackay and Brisbane.

As Southern Cross Austereo’s Darling Downs general manager, Mrs Davenport led the brand’s radio and TV stations from Toowoomba, Roma, Kingaroy, Roma and Warwick.

She won General Sales Manager of the Year two years running while working at Brisbane’s Australian Radio Network.

Ms Davenport is no stranger to TSBE, as a previous board member before moving into a general manager role at Newscorp’s Cairns Post masthead as well as its smaller sister newspapers.

Returning to the region less than two years later, she led the TBSE Access NZ mission to Auckland with a delegation of about 70 of the region’s budding exporters, innovators and marketers.

She joined the Wellcamp Airport I Fly Toowoomba campaign to promote the airport’s capacity for business and tourism.