WEBER, Mark

BORN MAY 1ST 1950 at Guelph in Ontario Canada, the son of veterinarian and printmaker artist, he first played hockey at age 6 for Danforth Fabrics in a Kiwanis League in Don Mills. He became a goalkeeper for Whitney Public School, then Jarvis Collegiate Institute. He started work as a linesman in local hockey from the age of 19, including the Northern Ontario Hockey Association (NOHA), and also refereed local and national broomball. He was goalkeeper at the Haileybury School of Mines for 3 years until graduating in 1974 with a Diploma of Geology and Geophysics Engineering. He then studied Geology by correspondence at Queen’s University.

Offered a position with Century Geophysical (Australia) Pty Limited, he was posted to Brisbane Australia for 3 months in 1981, then relocated to Adelaide in 1982 where he was manager of SA, WA, Tasmania and NSW for 4 years. He qualified as an IIHF Level 3 referee and began officiating ice hockey that year at local, state and national levels. This was to continue for 18 seasons until the year 2000.

In 1983 he was president of the South Australian association for 6 months, then held administrative positions with the board of the Victorian association, including delegate to the Victorian Olympic Committee (VOC). From 1986 to 2000, he was state Referee-In-Chief and mentor for new officials, as well as foundation president of the Victorian Gridiron Official's Association, based at Como Park in Prahran. In 2000, he was requested by the three original AIHL clubs in Adelaide, Canberra and Sydney to start an AIHL team in Melbourne. He founded the Melbourne Ice and spent 2 years researching prospects while playing games at the Oakleigh Rink. He was foundation chairman and president when the club was admitted to the AIHL in the April 2002 expansion, playing home games at Olympic Ice Skating Rink in Oakleigh and occasionally Bendigo.

From 2003, he was responsible for the operation of the AIHL as a director and secretary, and he is credited with appointing directors independent of the member-clubs to the positions responsible for strategy, marketing, branding and an expansion franchise in Perth.

In 2004, he took a Melbourne women’s ice hockey team to Adelaide to play the Showcase Series with Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane, which developed into today's Australian Women's Ice Hockey League (AWIHL). In February 2005, he started Aussie Puck and has sponsored the AWIHL with hockey pucks since 2008. He retired from both the AIHL and MI in 2006. In 2013, he helped organise the international Under-18 women’s event with Australia and New Zealand. He has worked as an administrative assistant with the national women’s program director since 2014, now supporting over 450 registered female players.

In 2016, he started the Australian Tier 2 Show Case Series for women with teams from WA, SA, Vic, ACT and NSW participating in a 3-round series in Canberra, Melbourne and Newcastle. He also organised the AWIHL Finals weekend in Melbourne that year with 950 spectators attending the final game.

In 2015, he was appointed a director of the board of Ice Sports Victoria, the umbrella organisation assisting the growth of the state sporting associations for Ice Hockey, Curling, Figure Skating, Speed Skating and Broomball. Since 2013, he been involved with the promoters of the Canada vs USA Ice Hockey Classic and his company is a supplier of pucks to stopconcussions.com for fundraising at these events. Mark Weber was made the first Lifetime Member of Melbourne Ice in 2016.