Kevin Byrne had a seventeen year army officer career where he saw service in South Vietnam, Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia and Singapore as well as throughout Australia. His final appointment was as Senior Instructor at the Royal Military College, Canberra. He was awarded the Mention in Despatches for bravery as a platoon commander during his service in South Vietnam.
Kevin Byrne on a visit with the commander of the US 7th Fleet Cairns 2006

Following this he was recruited to the Queensland Government where he headed the office of Northern and Regional Development based in Cairns. He later managed the Cairns office of the Queensland Confederation of Industry, the State’s largest private sector employer organisation before becoming Mayor of Cairns in 1992. He served a total of eleven years as Mayor of Cairns making him the second longest serving mayor in the city’s history.

He was elected on four occasions to head a city of 160,000 with a budget of some $250M and a council workforce of some 1400 people. It was during this time that the city enjoyed unprecedented growth and development ranking it now as one of the nation’s most liveable and desirable regional cities.

Between periods on the Council he also worked in Northern Russia on an eight month assignment as the Administrative Director of a giant oil spill and environmental remediation project funded by the World Bank and the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development
Kevin and Amanda Byrne escorting the Queen during the royal visit to Cairns in 2002

Kevin Byrne has also served for four years as the Chief Executive of the Papua New Guinea Tourism Promotion Authority where he was responsible for the design and implementation of the country’s Tourism Development Policy launched in 1996. During this time he also served as Acting Chairman of the National Airline Commission, Deputy Chairman of Air Niugini, a delegate to the APEC working groups on Tourism and Trade as well as a member of the National Negotiating Team on International Air Service Agreements.

Kevin Byrne has served on numerous Boards of Management and has served as patron to a number of community organisations over many years. He was awarded the Papua New Guinea Independence Medal (25th Anniversary) in 2000 for services to Aviation and Tourism and in 2003 the Australian Centenary Medal for services to Local Government and the City of Cairns.
Mayor Byrne and Mayor Xu in Zhanjiang 2006
He is currently the Associate Director of Capital Globe Ltd, a Hong Kong based private investment company and is a Director of Pacific Asia Solutions P/L a management consulting practice established in 2008. He is currently Chairman of the Cairns Regional Gallery Foundation and Chairman of the DUYFKEN Management Board. Together with his wife Amanda and daughter Isabel, they live in the suburb of Whitfield in Cairns.