With his red boxing gloves ready, Mr Alexander is the third confirmed mayoral candidate and will be running against Alderman Hugh McKenzie and Alderman Ted Sands in next month's local government elections.

Mr Alexander started with Autech in 1998 and helped grow the small Launceston business to be an national and international leader in construction software. He also sits on a number of government and business bodies.

He said Launceston was in need of change to get the economy going again but to also ensure young people stayed and help build the city up.

"I will take up the fight for the people of Launceston," Mr Alexander said yesterday.

"At the end of the day Launceston has been going through some really tough times and people continually say to me, 'we need to lift the city, we need to change it'.

"We've actually got to do something different, we have to create a new retail sector and get people back into the city."

Mr Alexander said his focus would be on revitalising the city and looked forward to working with the other aldermen to achieve this.

"Anyone who knows me, knows that I don't do things in half measures - boots and all, or pardon the pun, gloves and all," he said.

Since the legislation amendment had passed allowing first-time candidates to run for mayor, Mr Alexander said he'd received about 70 messages of support to run and he had no reason not to now.