Rob McGuirk, President, Hostelling International

Rotary Melbourne Podcast

Rob joined the Board of YHA Victoria in 1989 when the CEO was John Mitchell a long-standing member of the club who passed away in 2016. Rob became the Chair of YHA Victoria in 1992 and a member of the National AYHA Board. He served as Vice Chair of AYHA, and in 1998 was the first Australian to be elected to the International Board. In 2004 and again in 2010 he was elected as a Vice President. During his time on the international board, he served as Chair or a member of many Committees including, Finance, IT, Marketing and the Asian Regional Committee. In 2014 he was elected as Chair in Australia during the time that the mergers of the State based organizations were taking place. He was the first Chair of the single National organization, YHA Australia when the mergers were completed in 2017. In October 2018 Rob ran for and was elected to the position of President of Hostelling International at the conference in Iceland. He is the first Australian to be elected to this position. He continues to serve as a Director of YHA Australia.