Mark Peters OAM is an Australian former baseball player, and sport administrator. From 2012 to 2018, Peters was the chief executive officer of the

Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games The 2018 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXI Commonwealth Games and also known as Gold Coast 2018, was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth that were held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, bet ...

Corporation Organising Committee.

Baseball

Peters was born in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

, South Australia. He played in the South Australian Baseball League and won the Capps Medal for the 1977/78 season. Peters played in and captained the Australian baseball team for over 10 years. In 2012, he was still playing baseball at the masters competition level. Peters has contributed significantly to the development of baseball in Australia as an administrator. Between 1998 and 2001, he was president of the

Australian Baseball Federation Baseball Australia, formerly the Australian Baseball Federation is the national governing body of Baseball in Australia and owns the Australian Baseball League. Baseball is played in all the mainland states and territories, but it struggles fo ...

. Prior to this appointment, he held other Federation board positions. In 2009, Peters was the inaugural chair of the Major League Baseball Australia Academy Program and chair of the Major League Baseball's

Australian Baseball League The Australian Baseball League (ABL) is a professional baseball league in Australia. The league is governed by the Australian Baseball Federation (ABF). It uses the same name as a now-defunct competition held during the 1990s, and though it sh ...

. Peters has also served as president of the Oceania Baseball Confederation and board member of the

International Baseball Federation The International Baseball Federation (IBAF; Spanish: ''Federación Internacional de Béisbol'', French: ''Fédération internationale de baseball'') is the former worldwide governing body recognized by the International Olympic Committee as ove ...

Sport administration

In 1983, Peters began his sport administration career as a manager at South Australian Department of Recreation, Sport and Racing. In 1987, he took up a managerial position with Tasmanian Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation. From 1990 to 2001, Peters held senior managerial positions in Queensland departments managing tourism, sport and recreation. In 2001, he was appointed the executive director of the

Australian Sports Commission The Australian Sports Commission (ASC) is the Australian Government commission responsible for supporting and investing in sport in Australia. The Commission incorporates the Australian Institute of Sport. From 2018 to 2022, it was known as Sp ...

. Peters was given the task taking Australian sport beyond the success of the

2000 Sydney Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

. Peters resigned from the Australian Sports Commission in 2008. Major outcomes during Peters leadership were the redevelopment of

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The Institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

facilities, the establishment of the Active After-school Communities program for children, improved sports governance and the overhaul of soccer (football) in Australia, in particular

Football Federation Australia Football Australia is the governing body of soccer, futsal, and beach soccer within Australia, headquartered in Sydney. Although the first governing body of the sport was founded in 1911, Football Australia in its current form was only esta ...

. In 2010, Peters was appointed the chief executive officer of the Gold Coast

2018 Commonwealth Games The 2018 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXI Commonwealth Games and also known as Gold Coast 2018, was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth that were held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, bet ...

Bid Company. The bid was successful and in 2012 Peters was appointed chief executive officer of the

Corporation Organising Committee. In being appointed to the position

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

Mayor

Ron Clarke Ronald William Clarke, AO, MBE (21 February 1937 – 17 June 2015) was an Australian athlete, writer, and the Mayor of the Gold Coast from 2004 to 2012. He was one of the best-known middle- and long-distance runners in the 1960s, notable for ...

stated that Mr Peters was "the key" to the successful bid.

Education

Peters has completed a Business Degree and a Graduate Diploma in Recreation Planning. He attended

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

's six-week Advanced Management Program, and is a member of the

Australian Institute of Company Directors The Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) is a non-profit membership organization for directors. The AICD is a founding member of the Global Network of Director Institutes (GNDI). History The origins of the AICD can be traced ba ...

. He is an adjunct professor at

University of Canberra The University of Canberra (UC) is a public research university with its main campus located in Bruce, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. The campus is within walking distance of Westfield Belconnen, and from Canberra's Civic Centre. UC ...

Recognition

*1977/78 – Capps Medal – Best Player in the South Australian Baseball League *2000 – Australian Sports Medal *2020 - OAM - for service to sports administration, and to baseball.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peters, Mark Australian baseball players Australian sports executives and administrators Living people Recipients of the Australian Sports Medal Australian public servants Sportsmen from South Australia Year of birth missing (living people) Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia