Though Andrew Pitt was recently elected as the president of Launceston Chamber of Commerce, he has long been involved in contributing to Launceston's business sector.
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After being born in Launceston, Mr Pitt left the city at 18, spending some time living in England.
There, he worked in the water and environment sectors before moving back to Launceston in 2009.
Since then he's been assisting in the running of the family business: apparel store Neil Pitt's Menswear.
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"We [Neil Pitt's] were members of the chamber but we never really engaged with it," Mr Pitt said.
"I got a call in late 2013 from the Chamber and they were looking for a retailer to join the board ... their long-serving retailer board member had just left and I was asked to fill a casual vacancy.
"I don't think I said anything for about a year - I didn't really know what it was about. But, over the last six years, I've gained in confidence and understanding."
Since formally joining the chamber, Mr Pitt served as its representative on a number of boards including Cityprom. In 2018 he served as vice-president.
Given his background in water and environmental business, Mr Pitt said a focus for him and the chamber was to put the health of the Tamar River at the forefront of the agenda.
"I'm very interested in the Tamar/ kanamaluka - that's something the Chamber is going to have quite a strong focus on until we see a way to increase the rate of improvement," he said.
"We acknowledge the fact that there's lots of good work happening but it's something that we think the city could really benefit from for an accelerated improvement program. That sort of gels with my background in water and environment."
Mr Pitt said accelerated improvements to the river would, as a result, boost all other developments around it including the University of Tasmania Inveresk campus development.
I don't think I said anything for about a year - I didn't really know what it was about. But, over the last six years, I've gained in confidence and understanding.
- Andrew Pitt
"What is the future for that industrial area beyond that? We'd [Chamber of Commerce] like to see in the long-term a bit of a renaissance in that area," he said.
Mr Pitt also noted four key steps he believes need to be taken to make Launceston one of the world's greatest regional cities by 2040.
"It's a vision people can grasp and roll with. We've seen things like the Great Regional Cities Challenge emerge ... which is a really exciting grassroots way of developing that vision," he said.
"Firstly, the city's got to remain a fairly distinctive place ... it's got to be somewhere rather than anywhere and the business community is really important in that because the culture of a place, especially one that has this history of enterprise and commerce over its history - the business community is an important part of that culture."
The second step, according to Mr Pitt, is establishing a strong identity that would gain global renown, resulting in people coming here to live and visit.
"It gives the community a sense of pride and unity, I think that's really important ... food and beverage systems are emerging quite strongly as that identity at the moment," he said.
Following that, however was the importance of sustainability and growing Launceston at a healthy rate.
"The city's going to continue to grow, we've got substantial demographic challenges - we need skilled migration and we need to keep the people that have moved here recently," Mr Pitt said.
"We also need to make sure that growth remains equitable and doesn't drive disparity and we need to make sure it's environmentally sustainable and we're resilient in the face of climate change."
Finally, Mr Pitt said fostering creativity is a really important stage in making Launceston truly great.
"The fundamental ingredient for a creative city is a really strong education sector. That's why the chamber's very supportive of the Northern transformation, for example," he said.
Inner city business and living was another issue that Mr Pitt had been on the forefront of.
"This is an issue that's close to my heart given my business in the CBD ... even in the last 10 years I've been here I've noticed big changes in the city," he said.
"There's been a change where there seems to be more hospitality and both professional and personal services and there's probably less retailing.
"The needs of residents is quite different to the needs of businesses so balancing that is going to be interesting moving forward."
