Mark Smith

About Mark Smith

Mark commenced as Board Director in September 2026 and provides legal expertise to our Board. He works with our CEO and Board to deliver professional, efficient and effective service delivery outcomes for rural and small business sectors.

Joining the Board as a Director, Mark brings deep commercial and legal expertise together with an authentic, lived connection to rural and regional Queensland. As Senior Partner and Founder of SLF Lawyers, he provides the Board with sharp governance, risk and commercial judgement, helping guide strategy and service delivery outcomes for the rural and small business sectors BRS exists to serve.

Mark is an accomplished legal practitioner and firm-builder, with a career spanning commercial and agricultural law, alternative dispute resolution, banking and finance, insolvency, and corporate restructuring. As founder of SLF Lawyers, he has led the firm’s growth from a three-person Brisbane practice into a nationally recognised commercial law firm employing more than 110 professionals across four city offices — a track record of scaling a professional services business that speaks directly to the strategic and governance challenges facing BRS’s own stakeholders.

Before entering the law, Mark served as a teaching school principal in remote Queensland locations, including Isisford, Kynuna, Ilfracombe and Kaimkillenbun. That experience instilled enduring strengths in leadership, community engagement and organisational governance that continue to shape his approach to board-level responsibility today.

A proud Queenslander with deep ties to rural and remote Queensland, Mark brings genuine, first-hand understanding of the challenges facing rural communities, primary producers and small business owners. His board-level suitability is further evidenced by his pro bono legal support for community organisations including Sisters of North Cloncurry, and his active involvement in sport governance — including as Committee Member and Honorary Judiciary Chair of Australian Water Polo, former President of Western Qld Rugby Union, and Chair of Central West School Sport. He connects professional rigour with genuine passion for regional Australia.

Mark spends his time between his legal practice based in Brisbane and in Wallumbilla, where he and his wife Amanda run a small cattle farm.