Gregory Alan Mackie OAM was Elected to the City of Adelaide as a Councillor for the City of Adelaide from 2000 – 2003, and was again elected to serve in that role for Central Ward in a supplementary election in May 2020, resigning in June 2022.

A respected cultural advocate, business operator and public sector leader, Greg co-owned the iconic west-end indie literary bookshop, Imprints Booksellers (1984-2007), co-established Art Zone Gallery (1986-2000), co-founded the Adelaide West End Association, and led Adelaide Writers’ Week during the 1990s, before founding the iconic Adelaide Festival of Ideas in 1999. Notable among a long list of service and governance roles, he served as a Trustee of the Adelaide Festival Centre Trust, a member of the Libraries Board of SA and as a Member of the Council of the University of South Australia.

Mackie was appointed ‘Arts Supremo’ (Exec Director) Arts SA in 2004 and went on to be Deputy Chief Executive in the Department of the Premier and Cabinet 2008-11. During this period, among other innovations, he stewarded the leadership of Adelaide Thinkers in Residence Program, and established The Australian Centre for Social Innovation (TACSI) and the Integrated Design Commission of SA (IDCSA). He Chaired the Premier’s Communications Advisory Group for nearly five years, and was appointed by the Governor-General to the Council for the Order of Australia, serving as the SA Government’s representative.

Greg moved to SA Health to become ‘Ageing Provocateur’ in 2012 before leaving to establish his own sole trader consultancy practice in 2013.

Appointed CEO of The History Trust of South Australia in April 2016, Greg’s long and distinguished service has been formally recognised: he received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 2002 for services to the arts; was invested as an inaugural Flinders University Distinguished Alumni in 2006; received The national Dame Elizabeth Murdoch Cultural Leadership Award in 2007, and the Inaugural $50,000 Bettison James Award in 2015.