Online Meeting with Michael Waite, the Founder of Naracoorte Community News

  Online Meeting with Michael Waite, the Founder of Naracoorte Community News

From high finance to local news, backing Naracoorte's new newspaper!!

Michael Waite the founder of Naracoorte Community News, a print newspaper launched in May 2020, is bucking the trend.
As News Limited and Nine Media shut down local and regional newspapers, he has decided to establish a ‘start up’ in his hometown of Naracoorte. He has addressed a market need with each issue requiring a bigger print run! Produced and printed locally, people in the region have embraced the return of a local, community based and focussed hard copy newspaper.

 Prior to launching Naracoorte News, Michael, his wife Whitney, and their 3 children had started an 18- month family global travel experience in June 2019.

However, five months into the trip that started in their home in Seattle and soon after arriving in South Australia, Michael’s Mum, Sue Waite, was diagnosed with cancer and then COVID-19 hit, bringing an early end to their travel plans.

Most recently, Michael served as Senior Vice President of Operations at Bentall Kennedy (now BentallGreenOak: https://bentallgreenoak.com/), with responsibility for leading the design and implementation of new products and ensuring continuous efficient and effective operations across business units. Prior to this role Michael was SVP of Client Finance (2012-2015) where he was responsible for all aspects of accounting, operations compliance and client reporting for the $11.1 billion of US assets.

From 2008-2012, Michael spent four years with Cascade Investment, L.L.C., the private investment holding company of William H. Gates III, Microsoft Co-founder, where he served as head of accounting for the last two years for the US$60+ Billion investment portfolio. Michael also served as a Director of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.

Prior to this Michael was Chief Financial Officer at Julian LeCraw & Company, LLC (now Tribridge Residential) in Atlanta, GA where his responsibilities included strategic planning and execution of accounting, corporate finance, human resources, risk management and information technology across a US$1.5 Billion real estate portfolio.

Michael earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from Columbus State University and an MBA from Goizueta Business School at Emory University.

He was a candidate for State Treasurer of Washington state in 2016. And served on the National Board of Trustees for Camp Fire 2018-2019, Board of United Way of King County 2012-2015 and as a member of the Finance (2008-2018), Early Learning (2012-2018) and Audit (2008-2015) committees.

Michael currently serves on the executive committee of the League of Education Voters (Washington state).

Michael was born in Naracoorte, South Australia. He lived in the USA from 1998-2019, including 8 years in Atlanta, Georgia and the last 12 years in Seattle, Washington. He and his wife, Whitney, have three children, Scarlett, Nora and Hazel. Whitney is a paediatrician and worked at the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Hospital from 2008-2019.

Join us at 1pm by going to the following link…

https://zoom.us/j/603172155?pwd=MHVvZWtFM1UwT3dyUWZwUUtiZmtpdz09

Meeting ID: 603 172 155 Password: 033653

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Some hints are in the handy “etiquette”document.

See you online at 1pm.

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