My Name is Shane Cowan, my wife Leanne and I were blessed with three girls, the youngest daughter has a disability all are now young ladies over 25. 

I am 65 years old, born, lived and raised our family in the same Brisbane suburb. I have always enjoyed being active and was heavily involved in sport representing my school St Laurence’s and the State of Qld at all levels of swimming.  I left school and worked teaching all ages to swim through the summer months and a small welding business in the winter period, as there were not many heated pools in Brisbane then. 

Later moving into the community sector, where I have worked for over 40 years helping people gain skills through experiential learning, working predominately with long term unemployed who require assistance with retraining or attaining new skills to move into employment.

I continue to work for the same non for profit community organisation and have been the manager for the past twenty-five years. As a manager I have developed a strong management team that over the twenty-five years, have grown from 8 staff, one organisation, to now employing over 250 staff managing Ten community organisation, plus two for Profit enterprise.