Don Meij, was born in Rockhampton and grew up in Papua New Guinea for five years, then lived in north Queensland for five years before his family moved to Brisbane. He was raised in Brisbane along with two sisters, in the late 1980’s, and attended and graduated from Clontarf Beach State High School on the Redcliffe Peninsula.
He studied to be a teacher at the Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove Campus,
from 1987–1989 while working as a pizza delivery driver at Silvio's Dial-a-Pizza in Redcliffe.
The pizza industry so attracted him, that he stopped his teaching studies and became Silvio’s Pizza manager in Redcliffe. In 1996 he opened his first Domino’s store in Caboolture and after 5 years, he owned 17 stores throughout Queensland.
Working hard, he progressed and ultimately became the pizza chain’s operations director.
When Silvio’s brought the Domino’s franchise, he became the new pizza chain’s CEO in 2002.
In 2005 under his direction, Domino’s became Australia’s first publicly listed pizza chain on the Australian Stock Exchange. The company under his management now has over 3800 stores inAustralia, New Zealand, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, France , Luxembourg, Monaco and the Netherlands. It is the biggest Domino’s business in the world outside of the Untied States. In the financial year 2020/21 the group’s net profit was listed as in excess of $150 million. His awards are numerous, starting with “The Pizza International Manager Of The Year’ in 1996 and progressing through ‘The Outstanding Leadership in Domino’s Worldwide network’ in 2004 and ”The Top 10 List of CEO’s in 2013 to being inducted into the ‘Queensland Buisiness Leaders Hall Of Fame’ in 2018.
In 2022 Don Meij celebrated 35 years with Domino’s, which is the market leader in almost all of the 14 countries it now operates in.
Don Meij is listed on the wall of the Redcliffe Wall of Fame:
A collection of portrait and information honouring the achievements of individuals who have influenced and shaped Redcliffe. The collection is in the Jetty Arcade at 139-141 Redcliffe Parade.
For a complete list of people who appear on the wall click on the following blog post: