Exclusive: Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras has appointed company secretary Jesse Matheson as interim chief executive officer following the resignation of outgoing CEO Gil Beckwith last month, Gay Sydney News can reveal.
Two sources, not authorised to speak publicly, confirmed the appointment. One said staff were informed of the decision last week.
Sydney Mardi Gras and Matheson were contacted for comment. Mardi Gras said it had no comment to offer and Matheson did not immediately respond. The chief executive position is appointed by the board.
Matheson, a former Mardi Gras board member between 2016 and late 2022, currently serves as the organisation’s company secretary. He also works at Data61, the data and digital specialist arm of Australia’s national science agency, the CSIRO.
He has previously served as co-chair of the Mardi Gras board and was a board member for Sydney WorldPride.
In 2019, Matheson ran unsuccessfully as a political candidate for the Keep Sydney Open Party in the NSW state election. The party campaigned on nightlife and night-time economy issues and was best known for its opposition to Sydney’s lockout laws, which were later eased.
Earlier in his career, Matheson worked as a journalist at Australian Associated Press and interned at IGN Entertainment. According to his LinkedIn profile, he later worked at UNSW, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, the NSW Architects Registration Board and Inclusion Australia.
A 2012 Facebook post also shows he helped organise a focus group for gay dating website Manhunt.
The last time Mardi Gras appointed an interim CEO was in May 2023, when then-chief Albert Kruger stepped down. Beckwith, who was Mardi Gras chief financial officer at the time, was appointed in an interim capacity before being officially made CEO several month later.
Beckwith will officially finish up at Mardi Gras at the end of this month.
In a 2022 interview, Matheson spoke of the impact Mardi Gras had on his personal journey.
“I first marched in the parade when I was 15 and had hardly met any LGBTQI+ people, still questioning myself,” he said at the time in an article published by The Junction, a university student journalism website.
“It was a really reaffirming and emotional moment for me to walk up the street and feel celebrated for my sexuality.”
Matheson said then that he believed the perception that Mardi Gras is run by older people was inaccurate.
“Whenever I go into the office, I look around and see so many young people who are working for Mardi Gras and when I brief our volunteers, I always find a group of young people under the age of 25,” he said.
“We always say that Mardi Gras means different things to different people and all of those meanings are completely valid, whether it’s sharing a political message or going to the parade to party, they’re all valid ways of engaging with pride and Mardi Gras.”
When he was appointed to the Mardi Gras board in 2016, Matheson became one of the youngest members to be elected, aged just 24 at the time.
Editor’s note: Journalist Ben Grubb pays $50 annually for Mardi Gras membership to access discounts, including at retail stores and bars, but does not use the membership’s voting rights.
Gay Sydney News editor
1 Comment
I remember when he published an article defending people’s right to be “sexual racists” in the Sydney Star Observer, and then published an apology when he was angling for election to the Mardi Gras board. Once he got in, both articles were scrubbed from the internet. I guess his attempt to whitewash his own past was successful. But I remember. It explains so very much about the direction Mardi Gras has taken these past few years.