John Witheriff is a leading infrastructure practitioner, who as a Chairman or Director, has been involved in the delivery of:
John is presently:
John is also chairman of the rail consortium nominated as preferred proponent for the Inland Rail and tunnel Public Private Partnership (PPP).
He is a former Director of several prominent corporations including the Gold Coast Suns AFL Football Club (founding Chairman), GOLDOC (the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Corporation), Seaworld, Indy 300 Event Advisory Board (Chairman), SureSmart Water, Energex Retail, the Queensland Transmission and Supply Corporation and the Queensland Liquor Appeals Tribunal.
John was named Gold Coast Citizen of the Year (in 2005) and awarded the Keys to the City (in 2016) for his many years of service to the Gold Coast. In 2020, he was appointed a Member (AM) in the General Division of the Order of Australia.
Stage One of the Gold Coast light rail project was jointly funded by the Gold Coast City Council, the Queensland Government and the Australian Government. This is the first time any public transport project in Australia has been jointly funded by all three levels of government.
The Gold Coast light rail project is a $1.2 billion 18 year Public Private Partnership (PPP) contract with the Queensland State Government to design, build, finance, operate and maintain a light rail public transportation system. A PPP requires confident equity partners to facilitate a portion of the funding for the project. GoldLinQ’s partners are a combination of existing members of the consortium and external parties with experience in financing social infrastructure and transportation infrastructure project.
