Photographs and biographies of our chairman and commissioners
We have provided photographs of the ACCC Chairman and commissioners below. These photographs are owned by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). You are permitted to download and publish the photographs subject to the following conditions:
you may not use the photographs in a manner that suggests their association with or endorsement of any product, service or event, unless prior permission is sought and granted
you may not redistribute or sell the photographs
you may not create improper works with the photographs
the photographs must be properly attributed. Requests or inquiries regarding photographs should be addressed to the ACCC Publishing Unit.
Graeme Samuel was appointed chairman of the ACCC in July 2003. Mr Samuel is also an associate member of the Australian Communications and Media Authority.
Before his appointment he was president of the National Competition Council, chairman of the Melbourne & Olympic Parks Trust, a commissioner of the Australian Football League, a member of the Board of the Docklands Authority and a director of Thakral Holdings Limited. He relinquished all these offices to assume his position with the ACCC.
He is a past president of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a past chairman of Playbox Theatre Company and Opera Australia, a former Trustee of the Melbourne Cricket Ground Trust and former chairman of the Inner and Eastern Health Care Network.
Until the early 1990s he pursued a professional career in law and investment banking, from which he retired to assume a number of roles in public service and company directorships.
Mr Samuel holds a Bachelor of Laws (Melbourne) and Master of Laws (Monash). In 1998 Mr Samuel was appointed an Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia.
Peter Kell
Deputy chair
Peter Kell was appointed a deputy chair of the ACCC in July 2008 for a five-year term. Mr Kell chairs the Adjudication Committee and is a member of the Enforcement Committee. He serves on the Consumer Policy Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the federal government’s Financial Literacy Foundation.
Before joining the ACCC, Mr Kell was chief executive of CHOICE (the Australian Consumers Association) and a board member of the global consumer organisation Consumers International. He has extensive experience in advancing consumer and market reform issues in Australia and internationally.
Mr Kell previously worked at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, which he joined in 1998 when it took on a significantly expanded role in consumer and investor protection in financial services. He served as ASIC’s Executive Director of Consumer Protection and as its New South Wales Regional Commissioner until 2004.
Earlier in his career Mr Kell was a policy adviser in the federal Department of Finance.
Mr Kell has a BA with Honours in Economics from the University of Sydney.
Michael Schaper
Deputy chair
Michael Schaper was appointed a deputy chair of the ACCC on 30 May 2008 for five years.
Dr Schaper brings extensive experience in the area of small business through his previous roles as the Australian Capital Territory Small Business Commissioner, Dean of Murdoch University Business School in Western Australia and as President of the Small Enterprise Association of Australia and New Zealand. He has also been a member of the board of directors of the International Council for Small Business, served as head of the School of Business at Bond University and held the foundation professorial chair in Entrepreneurship and Small Business at the University of Newcastle. Before this, he was employed as a senior lecturer at Curtin University, responsible for the university’s entrepreneurship degree programs.
Between 2001 and 2003 Dr Schaper held several posts as visiting professor at the Ecole de Management Lyon, France, and the University of St Gallen, Switzerland. In Australia he has served as an adjunct professor at both Curtin University and the University of Canberra.
In addition to his extensive academic career, Dr Schaper has worked as a professional small business advisor and as the owner of a number of new business start-ups.
The author or co-author of eight business management books, he has been a regular columnist in a number of national magazines, newspapers and journals on business issues. He has also worked as a policy advisor to government at both state and federal levels.
Dr Schaper is a member of the ACCC’s enforcement and adjudication committees.
He holds a PhD and a Master of Commerce degree from Curtin University, as well as a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Western Australia.
Edward Willett
Commissioner
Edward Willett was re-appointed in June 2008 for a five-year term. Before his appointment to the ACCC, he was the inaugural executive director of the National Competition Council for seven years.
Before that he worked as an assistant commissioner with the Industry Commission and helped develop the federal Department of Industry, Science and Technology’s role in business law and regulation, spent three years as deputy head of the Commonwealth Office of Regulation Review and was involved in other Industry Commission inquiry work and research.
He also spent three years with the New Zealand Ministry of External Relations and Trade as an adviser on international economics and trade and eight years as an economist with the Department of Defence. Mr Willett has degrees in law and economics and a postgraduate diploma in international law.
Sarah Court
Commissioner
Sarah Court was appointed a Commissioner of the ACCC in April 2008 for a period of five years.
She is a full-time commissioner and brings with her more than ten years experience as a senior government lawyer specialising in federal litigation including administrative law, employment law, workers compensation, freedom of information and trade practices enforcement litigation.
Ms Court oversees the ACCC’s enforcement and litigation program; she is also Chair of the Commission’s Enforcement Committee.
Prior to joining the ACCC Ms Court was employed as a senior executive lawyer and Director at the Australian Government Solicitor. Ms Court’s roles at AGS included Director of the Adelaide and Darwin AGS offices, Director of the National Tax Practice and National Client Service Manager for the ACCC. Ms Court also practised extensively in trade practices law and litigation and has considerable experience conducting consumer protection enforcement litigation for the ACCC. This included advising on investigations, evidence-gathering, conducting formal interviews, working with counsel and developing case management and investigation strategies. Ms Court has particular expertise in unconscionable conduct matters.
Ms Court holds a Bachelor of Arts (Jurisprudence) and Bachelor of Law from the University of Adelaide as well as a Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the ANU. She was admitted to legal practice (ACT) in 1996.
Joe Dimasi
Commissioner
Joe Dimasi was appointed a Commissioner of the ACCC in December 2008 for a period of five years. Prior to his appointment, Joe Dimasi was the Executive General Manager of the Regulatory Affairs Division of the ACCC and had occupied this position since 1996. Before that, he was an Assistant Commissioner of the Industry Commission (now the Productivity Commission).
Mr Dimasi has been a senior economist in a number of organisations, including the Victorian Departments of the Treasury, Premier and Cabinet, and Business.
