Maree AdsheadQueensland Small Business Commissioner

Maree Adshead was appointed as Queensland Small Business Commissioner in May 2020 under the COVID-19 Emergency Response Act 2020.  Initially a temporary COVID response, the Office of the Small Business Commissioner is now being established as a permanent service for small business.  It is the primary role and function of the Small Business Commissioner to advocate for small businesses, to connect them with information and support needed to grow and thrive, and to provide dispute resolution support (including a free mediation service) for small business tenancy matters.

Maree is an experienced advocate and small business owner.  She has spent 10 years in the legal profession, as a partner of national law firm.  She has also had experience with start-ups, having founded and built her own successful software start-up businesses which received multiple awards for excellence in innovation. Maree helped ignite the open data movement in Australia, as founding CEO of the Open Data Institute Australian Network.

In 2017 Maree was appointed the inaugural Queensland Small Business Champion, establishing a trusted interface between business and government, advocating on behalf of the Queensland small business community, as well as triaging and referring disputes.

Having achieved great work for Queenslanders in these previous roles, Maree now leads the office of the Queensland Small Business Commissioner.