Photos & biographies of the chairman & commissioners
We have provided photographs of the ACCC chairman and commissioners below. These photographs are owned by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. You are permitted to download and publish the photographs subject to the following conditions:
you may not use the photographs in a manner which 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.
Mr Samuel was appointed chairman of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission 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 & 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.
Louise Sylvan
Deputy Chair
Louise Sylvan was appointed Deputy Chair in November 2003.
She was formerly the Chief Executive of the Australian Consumers' Association (ACA) and President of Consumers International.
An active member and worker in consumer protection, nationally and internationally, for over 15 years, Ms Sylvan is well known for her work in enhancing consumer rights in a range of areas such as health, food safety issues, financial services, as well as in competition and consumer policy.
Currently, Ms Sylvan serves internationally on the OECD Consumer Policy Committee and nationally on the federal government’s Expert Group in Electronic Commerce and the Australian Statistics Advisory Council to the ABS. Prior memberships included six years on the Australian Prime Minister's Economic Planning Advisory Council and the Self-Regulation Task Force in 1999–2000.
Ms Sylvan has a BA and MPA from universities in her original homeland of Canada and immigrated to Australia in 1983.
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John Martin
Commissioner
John Martin was Executive Director of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry from 1989 until his appointment to the Commission in June 1999. In his position at ACCI he was responsible for representation of business interests nationally and development of business policies and programs, particularly as they affect small and medium enterprises. Mr Martin was a member of the Board of Standards Australia for over five years and was an Australian industry representative on the Business Industry Associations Committee to the OECD.
Mr Martin has responsibility for the Accc’s small business and rural and regional program and he is Chairman of the Commission’s Transport Committee.
Mr Martin holds an economics degree from the Australian National University.
Mr Martin commenced his second five-year term on 7 June 2004.
Stephen King
Commissioner
Dr Stephen King is a Commissioner of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission specialising in mergers. He began his five-year term with the ACCC in June 2004, and currently chairs the ACCC’s Merger Review Committee.
Before joining the ACCC, Stephen was a Professor of Economics at the University of Melbourne and a Professor of Management (Economics) at the Melbourne Business School. He was also a Director of CoRE Research, an economic consulting firm that he co-founded.
Dr King's research in industrial economics has been published widely, including articles in major international economics journals such as the Journal of Political Economy and the Journal of Industrial Economics. He was a member of the Victorian Infrastructure Planning Council between 2000 and 2002 and a member of the Executive Committee of the Prime Minister’s Home Ownership Task Force in 2002-2003. Dr King has also provided expert evidence to the courts on a variety of matters involving trade practices and regulation.
In 1985, Dr King received the University Medal from ANU for his undergraduate studies in economics. He completed his PhD in economics from Harvard University in 1991. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.
Pat Walker
Commissioner
Mr Walker was appointed a commissioner of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in March 2008 for a period of five years. He is a full-time commissioner at the ACCC with special responsibility to look after fuel pricing issues.
He brings extensive experience from a decade of work as the Commissioner for Consumer Protection at the Department of Consumer and Employment Protection in Western Australia. He managed the development of significant consumer programs including improved transparency in fuel pricing for West Australian motorists.
Mr Walker is also a former member of the Legal Aid Commission of WA, the Medical Board of WA and a trustee of the National Travel Compensation Fund.
Previously he was the Chief Executive Officer of the City of Subiaco and Chief Executive Officer of the Town of Narrogin from 1986 to 1998.
He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management and a former State President and National Director of the Institute of Municipal Management.
