Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC) chief operating officer Leighton Wood has announced his retirement after 10 years of service.
MCEC chief executive Peter King said Wood’s experience and guidance has been instrumental to the venue’s success over the past decade.
“Under Leighton’s leadership, MCEC has achieved record revenue and customer satisfaction results, King said.
“He is a leader that puts his people first and has great respect within our business and the broader events industry.
“Leighton leaves a significant legacy in the area of sustainability. He has done an immense amount of work to ensure MCEC is a leader in this space, to which our business and our environment will always be grateful for.”
Commenting on his departure, Wood said he has been very fortunate to work at MCEC during a period of great change and success.
“Our devotion to the customer experience is unrecognisable to when I arrived in 2010,” he said.
“I’ve learnt so much about leadership from an always-supportive CEO, I’ve enjoyed working alongside various and talented executive team peers and their high-performing teams, and I’ve been blessed to have worked with an operations team of the highest professional quality and culture.
“The team now needs to reset for a different future, built by new leaders.”
MCEC’s director of business relaunch, Helen Fairclough, will replace Wood as chief operating officer.
“I believe Helen is uniquely placed to contribute to the reset of our business for the future, and I have absolute confidence that the delivery excellence we are so passionate about will be in great hands,” King said.
Wood will finish up at MCEC in the first week of July.
Meanwhile, MCEC’s acting director of people and culture, Amanda Wilson, has been permanently appointed as chief people officer.
