A skilled businessman, marketeer and community leader, James ‘Jim’ Couper has been named as one of Bathurst’s recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia [OAM].
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Mr Couper has lived in Bathurst since 1986, and throughout his time in the region, has made a number of stellar contributions to community development projects through his numerous portfolios.
“I’m thrilled and humbled to be receiving an OAM,” Mr Couper said.
Mr Couper has built up an impressive reputation over the years as a board member and chair for a number of not-for-profit organisations.
Some of Mr Couper’s notable portfolios include serving as the chair of both the Catholic Diocese of Bathurst’s Finance Council and Housing Plus Limited.
As part of the Catholic Diocese of Bathurst’s education taskforce from 2016 to 2017, Mr Couper played a pivotal role in overseeing updates to the financial management of the institution’s education office.
“To a certain extent, our efforts enabled the education office to reduce fees for the first time ever,” he said.
“Through a more professionalised system, the education office has been able to contribute a fair amount of money to various initiatives throughout the Central West.”
During Mr Couper’s time as chair of Housing Plus Limited, he introduced a new system of governance that saw the organisation become a tier one community housing provider.
I'm thrilled and humbled to be receiving an OAM.
- Jim Couper
In the four-and-a-half years Mr Couper was chair, Housing Plus Limited doubled its revenue, almost doubled its income and added over $50 million to its balance sheet.
“We built about 50 affordable housing properties across Mudgee, Orange and Bathurst,” he said.
Mr Couper has been supported throughout his memorable career by his loving family, including wife Louise and children Miffany, Merryn, Simon and Leith.
As an honourary OAM recipient, Mr Couper believes the function of contribution is essential to being a standout citizen.
“A stellar Australian citizen is someone who is actively contributing to their community,” he said.
“In many ways, this attribute is why I moved into not-for-profit work.”
In his downtime, Mr Couper enjoys reading stories from a variety of genres.
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Sam Bolt
"I'm not in the business of telling people what to do. I'm much more in the business of describing things, situations and stuff like that and leaving them out there, and you can make up your minds about them." -Nick Cave
"I'm not in the business of telling people what to do. I'm much more in the business of describing things, situations and stuff like that and leaving them out there, and you can make up your minds about them." -Nick Cave
