FORMER Ovens and Murray premiership footballer Barry Sullivan wants to make Wangaratta a magnet for major sporting events.
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The Wangaratta Rovers life member was this week appointed chairman of Wangaratta Unlimited, the organisation with the job of attracting investment and industry.
Mr Sullivan said he was keen to attract swimming carnivals, road cycle races, orienteering and rogaining to Wangaratta.
“We are looking to have Wangaratta as one of the key regional centres throughout Victoria that can be seen as located to best host a range of different sporting events,” Mr Sullivan, who played in Rovers’ 1991 flag-winning team, said.
“It’s something that’s quite a good economic stimulus and we’re actually having a capability and capacity assessment done at the moment in relation to holding sporting events.”
Mr Sullivan grew up on a farm at Everton and returned to the district after completing an engineering degree in Melbourne.
His career has seen him work at the IBM computer factory at Wangaratta before joining defence giant Thales where he was general manager of ordinance business and was involved in overseeing 1000 workers at sites including factories at Benalla and Mulwala.
Nowadays Mr Sullivan is chairman of the North East Regional Executive Forum and does business advising with an office at his Killawarra home.
Mr Sullivan has replaced Michael Carlile as chairman.
He is aiming to bolster the attractiveness of Wangaratta over his 12 months as chairman.
“I’d just like to see a balanced approach in the area,” Mr Sullivan said.
“We need to have good education systems and we need to have a good health system and a good urban environment with good retail options and good car parking.”
The appointment of Mr Sullivan coincides with the recruitment of Wendy Lester and Guy Wilkinson, who have tourism backgrounds, to the Wangaratta Unlimited board.
