Kim Seagram

Awarded for service to business or industry

Born: 4 October 1963 - Montreal, Canada

Entered on roll: 2019

“Building the Tasmania brand”

Kim Seagram has driven community development and regional growth through her deep and enduring understanding of the importance of high quality product backed by impeccable service, that leverages off Tasmania’s reputation as a place of pristine beauty.

Kim, with her husband, Rod Ascui, and a talented team, operates two Launceston restaurants, the award-winning Stillwater Restaurant and Black Cow Bistro.

Up until 2000, Kim and Rod developed and operated Launceston’s Ripples Café, and the Lalla Gully Vineyard, which they sold in 1998.

In 1997, Kim was elected to the Vineyards Association of Tasmania Committee of Management and made a significant contribution to strategy and marketing development, both within the state and nationally over the following decade. Kim was on the working group to develop the National Wine Tourism Strategy and with the resulting Australian Wine Tourism Alliance.

Kim and Rod joined forces with winemaker Natalie Fryar in establishing the Abel Gin Company and released their first two gins in December 2016.

Kim’s passion to support local producers and build the Tasmanian brand led her to help found Harvest Launceston Community Farmers’ Market in 2011, where she still serves as a Director. Harvest Launceston was recognised as Australia’s Most Outstanding Farmers Market in the ABC Delicious Magazine Produce Awards in 2013 and 2017.

For over a decade, Kim was Deputy Chair of the Brand Tasmania Council and a Director of the Tourism Tasmania Board for over eight years, receiving a contribution to the Tourism Industry Award in 2015.

Kim was also Deputy Chair of the State Government’s Northern Regional Reference Group, and a member of the Global Advisory Group for the University of Tasmania School of Business and Economics, where she chaired the Entrepreneurships and Innovation Committee and received the Business Leader of the Year Award in 2016.

Kim was inducted into the Launceston Chamber of Commerce Hall of Fame in 2017 where she served as a Board Member.

Originally from Canada, Kim has given her time generously to her adopted home of Tasmania.