Peter King, Chief Executive of Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC), has announced that he will leave his role after eleven years. Peter has had an incredibly successful tenure bringing the Good Friday Appeal to MCEC, overseeing the venue’s expansion, delivering record revenue for MCEC and economic impact for the state of Victoria, driving sustainability in business events, and transforming the organisation during the pandemic. He will remain with MCEC as it manages this business transition and is committed to ensuring its success as we emerge from the acute stage of the pandemic. This time will allow for the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Trust (MCET) to recruit his replacement. In 2014 MCEC officially became the home of the Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal, one of Australia’s most iconic and life-changing fundraising events.
In 2018 he led the $205 million expansion of MCEC, this increased event space by 25 per cent and grew MCEC’s total size to 70,000 square metres, the largest centre of its kind in the southern hemisphere.
In recent years Peter pushed MCEC to become a global leader in sustainability in business events. In 2018 MCEC became a partner in the Melbourne Renewable Energy Project which means the 20,000 square metre expansion space at MCEC, is powered with renewable energy. In 2019 the business recovered more than 68 tonnes of food waste and donated over 74,000 meals to food rescue organisation, OzHarvest.
During his time at MCEC Peter was focused on maximising MCEC’s impact for Melbourne and Victoria, and in 2019 MCEC had a record economic impact to the state, exceeding $1.1 billion.
When the pandemic hit in 2020 – Peter embraced the challenges this presented to the business by managing the transformation and diversification of the business. This included supporting the Victorian State Government’s vaccination rollout and adapting the space to attract partners such as The LUME Melbourne, Australia’s first permanent digital art gallery. While competitors paused during lockdowns, Peter oversaw a comprehensive business transformation to an Agile operating model, to better position MCEC to serve customers in the wake of the pandemic. The organisation will see the benefits of this legacy for years to come.
