Michael J. Hefferan is the recently retired Pro Vice-Chancellor (Engagement) and Professor of Property and Development at the University of the Sunshine Coast.

He has a PhD, Masters of Applied Science and postgraduate management qualifications. He is a Registered Valuer, a fellow of the Australian Property Institute and was a long-term fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Urban Development Institute of Australia and of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He is a past president of the Australian Property Institute, Queensland Division, and past Chair of that organisation’s National Education Board.

He was previously Director of the Institute for Sustainable Resources at the Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane – a major cross-faculty research organisation with particular interest in resources management, sustainable built environments and social dimensions of change.

For almost 20 years previously, he was an executive director within the Queensland State Government, with direct responsibility for industry and regional development. In those areas, he managed some of the largest development projects and commercial and industrial property portfolios in the State.

His particular research interests include issues relating to statutory valuation and property taxation, building use and adaptation, master planned communities, sustainability within the built environment and regional development.

He was, for many years, co-editor of the Australasian Journal of Regional Studies and continues with academic and research involvement with the University of the Sunshine Coast and Queensland University of Technology and, in North America, with Purdue University, Indiana and Memorial University, Newfoundland. He consults widely and is involved in numerous programme and project reviews for governments and international bodies.

He has now been awarded Emeritus status by his home university.