Prof. Gardner will deliver the 5th Thomas Baker Oration on Wednesday 16th June 2021.

Note this is an in-person event.

Professor Margaret Gardner became President and Vice-Chancellor of Monash University on September 1, 2014.

Prior to joining Monash, Professor Gardner was Vice-Chancellor and President of RMIT from April 2005 until August 2014. She has extensive academic experience, having held various leadership positions in Australian universities throughout her career, including at the University of Queensland and Griffith University.

She attained a first-class honours degree in Economics and a PhD from the University of Sydney. In 1988, she was a Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellow spending time at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cornell University, and the University of California, Berkeley. In 2018, she was elected a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.

Professor Gardner is Chair of the Group of Eight Universities a coalition of world-leading research-intensive Australian universities and Chair of CASE Asia-Pacific Regional Council. She is a Director of Infrastructure Victoria and the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG) and a member of the Invest Victoria Advisory Board.

Professor Gardner has previously been Chair of Universities Australia and Museum Victoria and chaired the Strategic Advisory Committee and the Expert Panel of the Office of Learning and Teaching (Federal Government Department of Education and Training). She has also been a member of various other boards and committees, including the Australian-American Fulbright Commission, the ANZAC Centenary Advisory Board and the International Education Advisory Committee, which led to the Chaney Report.

In 2007, Professor Gardner was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in recognition of service to tertiary education, particularly in the areas of university governance and gender equity, and to industrial relations in Queensland. Subsequently in January 2020, Professor Gardner was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) for her eminent service to tertiary education through leadership and innovation in teaching and learning, research and financial sustainability.

Who was Thomas Baker?

Hear more about another fabulous Club member in the following video: