Queen Vic Market CEO to Step Down in 2023
25 October 2022
Queen Victoria Market Chief Executive Officer Stan Liacos has informed the QVM Board that he will not seek another five-year engagement and will leave the Market in March 2023.
Mr Liacos was appointed to the position in January 2018. Since then, he has steered the Market through a highly challenging pandemic period, brought greater financial stability and commercial acumen to the Market and its operations, introduced online shopping services, and significantly increased the Market’s reach into the community through partnerships with a suite of major Melbourne festivals and events.
Mr Liacos also oversaw an increase in the number of popular Night Market events, from 28 to more than 40 a year. This contributed to a million-person jump in Market visitation in 2019, prior to the onset of COVID-19.
QVM Board Chair Jane Fenton said Mr Liacos’s time in the role has been marked by a genuine passion for the Market and an unrelenting commitment to understanding its operations and key stakeholders – especially its 600 traders.
She acknowledged Mr Liacos’s strong financial management of the Market and success in forging partnerships with key events like the Melbourne International Food and Wine Festival, Melbourne Fashion Festival, Melbourne Fringe and a range of other cultural events.
“Stan has also significantly improved the relationship between traders and Market management during his time in the role. He has always shown a fierce determination to make the Market an even better place to work and do business,” she said.
Mr Liacos will leave the Market at the end of March, having loved his time at the helm. He’s convinced the organisation is now better positioned for a bright future than it has been for a long time.
“Leading the Market hasn’t been easy and has, at times, been exhausting,” he said. “Keeping the Market and its traders viable during the pandemic was a relentlessly challenging, 24-hour, 7-day week job.”
“As I approached the end of my five-year term as CEO and contemplated the next five or so years, I decided that I have one more CEO role in my career and that it is the right time to seek new challenges.
“I have absolutely loved working with our many stakeholders, including our Board, traders, staff and contractor partners.”
The Board will now begin the process of finding a new CEO for the Market and has engaged respected recruitment firm Amrop Carmichael Fisher to undertake the search.
