From Soldier to CEO: An interview with Blake Repine

CEO of Central Highlands Community Services, Blake Repine.

The former Associate Vice Chancellor of CQUniversity (CQU)has supported numerous organisations to better our Emerald community andsurrounds.
“I’m originally from the US, and my wife was born inChilders, but we met in Iraq,” Mr Repine said.
“It was a series of unfortunate events that lead us to findeach other.
“In 2013/2014 at the height of the mining boom, I wasworking for local companies and working with mines on contracts around Emerald,which was the first time we came to the area.
“Then I became the Practice Manager of an accounting firm,and in 2017 we moved to Emerald permanently for the first time.
“I was the Associate Vice Chancellor for CQUniversity untilthe end of 2018.
“My contract with CQU ended and I went to Darwin for ninemonths with the Menzies School of Health Research.
“Then we went to Jundah, Western Queensland for 14 monthsand I became the Deputy CEO of the Barcoo Shire Council.
“In June of this year, as we approached school holidays, mywife and I were talking about coming to Emerald for a long weekend and spendingsome time here.
“I just said, ‘why don’t we move back to Emerald?’ and thedecision was made. Two weeks later we were here.
“We’ve always enjoyed living in Emerald.
“It’s a great community, it’s a great region and you haveeverything you need, so we decided this is where we needed to be.”

To read the full interview, check out this week’s edition of The Highlands Leader.