Recognise Professor Gary Martin?

Gary, the 89th person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, regularly appears on commercial TV, on capital city radio stations and in metro newspapers.

Gary is the CEO of the Australian Institute of Management WA, which partly explains his media profile. Mainly, though, it’s the result of Gary’s hard work and shrewd tactics.

Gary regularly spends his weekends writing guest columns for newspapers. He voices clear opinions and thinks of colourful angles, to make them more appealing.

And when Gary pitches the columns to newspapers, he writes four different versions with four different word lengths, so they can be slotted into different parts of the paper. 

Often, radio and TV programs will read the columns and request follow-up interviews.

Gary the media commentator is a world removed from Gary the primary school teacher, which was how he began his career. 

Gary then spent more than two decades in university roles, eventually rising to become interim vice-chancellor at Murdoch University. In 2012, he took on his current role.

Something to think about next time you see Gary on TV.