13 History and Heritage Leaders in Queensland Today

Queensland's history and heritage work happens in more places than a museum gallery or a heritage listed building. It lives in libraries, research teams, collections, community partnerships and the careful decisions that determine which stories are kept visible.

This list brings together thirteen current leaders whose work helps Queensland understand, protect and share its past. They represent different parts of the system, including the State Library of Queensland, Queensland Museum, the Queensland Heritage Council and university research. The list is not a ranking. It is a useful starting point for people who want to learn from the work already happening across the state.

The people included here have a current public role in Queensland's history or heritage landscape and a distinct contribution to the way the past is cared for and shared. Their work is different, but each person shows a practical way to make the past useful in the present.

Why history and heritage leadership matters

Heritage is not only about keeping old things safe. It is also about deciding how knowledge is interpreted, who can access it, whose perspective is heard and how a community carries memory into the future. That makes leadership important. Good leaders create the conditions for researchers, custodians, educators, artists and the public to work together.

Queensland is large and varied. Its history includes First Nations knowledge, migration, industry, science, family stories, natural history, built heritage and changing relationships with place. No single organisation can hold all of that. The strongest work connects institutions and communities rather than treating collections as closed rooms.

1. Vicki McDonald AM FALIA

State Librarian and CEO, State Library of Queensland

Vicki McDonald's official State Library profile identifies her as the State Librarian and CEO. The State Library executive team says her portfolio sets strategic direction, supports organisational leadership and coordinates the library's First Nations engagement strategy.

The State Library describes the John Oxley Library as a leading collector of Queensland's documentary heritage. McDonald's role sits at the point where collections, public access and institutional stewardship meet. Her example shows why an organisation's memory needs an owner who can keep it useful, discoverable and connected to the people whose lives it represents.

2. Louise Denoon

Executive Director, Community Partnerships, State Library of Queensland

The State Library executive team lists Louise Denoon as Executive Director, Community Partnerships. The portfolio is responsible for building collaborative partnerships across Queensland and helping communities access library services, digital support and knowledge.

Collections matter, but relationships determine whether those collections feel relevant, trusted and alive. Denoon's work shows the value of bringing local knowledge into public programmes and creating better ways to share stories that do not fit neatly into a catalogue. The lesson applies to any organisation holding shared knowledge: ask who needs to be part of the conversation about it.

3. Linda Barron

Acting Executive Director, Content, State Library of Queensland

The State Library executive team lists Linda Barron as Acting Executive Director, Content. The Content portfolio manages material from selection through to delivery and cares for the library's content, including Queensland's documentary culture and heritage in the John Oxley Library.

This is a useful reminder that heritage leadership is also a daily practice of selection, care and access. The work is not finished when an item enters a collection. Someone still has to help people discover it, understand its context and use it responsibly.

4. Renai Grace

Chief Executive Officer, Queensland Museum

Queensland Museum lists Renai Grace as Chief Executive Officer. The museum's appointment announcement says she commenced in the role on 15 December 2025 after leading Museum of Brisbane and Queensland Museum's Museums and Engagement portfolio.

Museum leadership is a balancing act. Objects and specimens need careful stewardship, while exhibitions and programmes need to invite people into the story. Grace's role places her in the space between collections, public experience, partnerships and the long term purpose of a cultural institution.

5. Peter Denham

Executive Director, Collections, Research and Exhibitions, Queensland Museum

The Queensland Museum key people page lists Peter Denham as Executive Director, Collections, Research and Exhibitions. His portfolio connects the museum's care of collections with the research and exhibitions that make those collections meaningful to the public.

That connection is central to good history and heritage work. A collection becomes more valuable when research can explain it, curators can place it in context and visitors can see why it matters. Denham's role shows the leadership needed to keep those parts moving together.

6. Dr Bianca Beetson

Executive Director, First Nations, Queensland Museum

The Queensland Museum key people page lists Dr Bianca Beetson as Executive Director, First Nations. A Queensland Museum First Nations research programme describes the work as including museum based research, curation, storytelling, policy, partnerships, archives, exhibitions, collections and repatriation.

This role is a reminder that history and heritage are not neutral containers. They involve relationships, authority and responsibility. First Nations leadership helps cultural institutions examine how stories are collected, interpreted and shared, and how communities can shape the work.

7. Yvonne Barlow

Chair, Queensland Heritage Council

The Queensland Government profile of the Heritage Council lists Cr Yvonne Barlow as Chair. It notes her local government experience and her involvement in guiding the management of the heritage village Old Petrie Town.

The Queensland Heritage Council has a public role in identifying and protecting places with special heritage value to the community and future generations. Barlow's work illustrates that heritage leadership includes governance, public interest decisions and the patient work of bringing different community interests into the same conversation.

8. Fiona Gardiner PSM

Heritage consultant and member, Queensland Heritage Council

The Queensland Government profile of Fiona Gardiner describes her as a heritage consultant, Associate Adjunct Professor, PhD candidate and former public servant. It says she spent thirteen years as Director of Heritage in the former environment departments, working on the administration of the Queensland Heritage Act 1992 and strategic heritage projects.

Her example shows the value of people who can connect policy, professional practice and the long view of conservation. Heritage decisions need both care for individual places and a clear understanding of the systems that protect them.

9. David Gole AM

Architect and member, Queensland Heritage Council

The Queensland Government profile of David Gole describes him as an architect with more than thirty years of experience in heritage conservation, adaptive reuse and contemporary additions to heritage buildings and sites. It also identifies him as a principal at JDA Co, an adjunct professor at The University of Queensland and a board member of AusHeritage.

Heritage is not always a choice between freezing a place in time and replacing it. Gole's work sits in the more demanding space of adapting old places while respecting their value. That is a useful model for any leader trying to carry the past into a working future.

10. Tina King

Heritage professional and member, Queensland Heritage Council

The Queensland Government profile of Tina King describes her as a heritage professional with more than twenty years of experience across historical archaeology, anthropology, built heritage and physical conservation. It says she currently leads the Queensland Heritage and Archaeology team at Urbis.

King's work highlights the practical side of heritage leadership. Conservation often happens inside complex development, infrastructure and planning decisions. The leader's job is to keep cultural values visible while helping a project make decisions that can stand up to scrutiny.

11. Emeritus Professor Ian Lilley

Emeritus Professor, School of Social Science, The University of Queensland

The University of Queensland profile for Ian Lilley describes him as an internationally recognised leader in archaeology and heritage across Australasia, the Asia Pacific and globally. The profile says he remains research active and works on World Heritage, climate related damage to heritage and the experiences of Indigenous and other descendant communities.

Heritage research is strongest when it does more than produce a publication. It can help people understand why a site matters, how a landscape has changed and what should be protected for future generations. Lilley's work shows how long term thinking becomes practical when it shapes care for a place, a programme or a public decision.

12. Associate Professor Geoff Ginn

Associate Professor of History, The University of Queensland

The University of Queensland profile for Geoff Ginn identifies him as an Associate Professor of History and describes his teaching in British history, urban history and historiography. It also describes him as an active public historian and former heritage consultant, with service on the boards of the State Library of Queensland and Queensland Museum.

Ginn's work shows how history becomes public when researchers connect evidence with the places, institutions and communities around them. A historian does not only explain what happened. They can also help people ask which stories have been preserved, which have been left out and what a more complete account requires.

13. Professor Michael Westaway

Professor, School of Social Science, The University of Queensland

The University of Queensland profile for Michael Westaway describes his bioarchaeology research in Australia and New Guinea, including work connected with Queensland communities and collections. The UQ archaeology programme places him among the researchers working across archaeology, cultural heritage and long term human history.

Westaway's work widens the idea of Queensland history. The story is not only in grand buildings or official records. It is also in evidence about people, movement, health and relationships with place across long periods of time. That evidence can give communities a deeper and more careful understanding of where they have come from.

What these leaders show

Taken together, these thirteen people show that history and heritage leadership has several connected jobs. Libraries preserve and open access to documentary memory. Community partnerships help people see themselves in that memory. Museums turn collections and research into shared public experiences. Heritage councils bring conservation into public decision making. Universities develop the evidence and ideas that help a society make better decisions about the past.

The strongest work crosses those boundaries. A collection is more useful when researchers can interpret it, communities can add meaning and the public can encounter it in a form that makes sense. A research finding matters more when it informs care for a place, a programme or a conversation about identity.

A practical test for leaders

When I work with leadership teams, I start by making hidden tension discussable. The same principle helps cultural organisations. If a team is quietly arguing about whose story belongs, what should be preserved or who gets to decide, a new process will not solve the problem until the tension is named.

A useful next step is to choose one collection, place or programme and ask three simple questions. What must be protected? Who needs to help decide? What should a member of the public be able to understand or do because of this work? Clear answers turn respect for history into choices people can act on.

How to use this list

If you work in a heritage organisation, use these examples to ask where your own leadership is strongest and where the connections are weak. Do your researchers understand the public purpose of their work? Do your community partners have a meaningful role in shaping programmes? Can people find the knowledge your organisation holds?

If you work in another kind of organisation, the same questions still apply. Every organisation has a history, even if it is stored in meeting notes, customer stories, old decisions or the knowledge of long serving people. Leaders who care for that memory make it easier for new people to contribute without losing what matters.

Frequently asked questions

Who leads the State Library of Queensland?

Vicki McDonald is the State Librarian and CEO. Louise Denoon is Executive Director, Community Partnerships, and Linda Barron is Acting Executive Director, Content. Their roles are different, but each contributes to how the library cares for and shares Queensland's documentary culture.

Who is the CEO of Queensland Museum?

Renai Grace is the current Chief Executive Officer listed by Queensland Museum. The museum announced her appointment in November 2025, with her commencement date set for 15 December 2025.

What does a heritage researcher do?

A heritage researcher studies evidence about people, places, objects and culture, then helps others understand what that evidence means. The work can support education, conservation, policy, community identity and decisions about the future.

Why are universities important to heritage?

Universities provide research, training and long term inquiry. They can connect local evidence with wider questions about culture, place and change, helping heritage decisions rest on more than memory or assumption.

Is this a ranking?

No. The list is a compact directory of thirteen current Queensland leaders whose work connects with history or heritage in different ways.

Final thought

Queensland's history is too large and varied to sit in one institution. It needs people who preserve evidence, build trust with communities, lead public learning, protect significant places and ask careful questions about the past.

The practical challenge is to keep those jobs connected. When leaders make knowledge accessible, share authority responsibly and turn evidence into clear choices, they give the next generation a stronger place to begin.

Related reading: Build a Working Genius culture, How to get a leadership team aligned, and Steps after Working Genius.