Chief Executive Officer

John has been the Chief Executive of the Grattan Institute since it was founded. He has published extensively on economic reform priorities, budget policy, tax reform, housing affordability, and generational inequality. This work is underpinned by themes of prioritising government initiatives, and the limits to government effectiveness.

John graduated from the University of Oxford in 1999 with a DPhil in public law after completing an LLB (Hons) and a BSc from the University of Melbourne in 1990. He has worked at the University of Oxford, the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet, consulting firm McKinsey and Co, and ANZ Bank in fields including law, public policy, strategy, and finance.

Household Finances Program Director

Brendan’s research focuses on tax reform, economic and budget policy, retirement incomes and superannuation, housing, transport infrastructure and cities. Before Grattan, Brendan worked as a macro-financial economist with the World Bank in Indonesia and Latin America, and prior to that, he undertook a number of roles with the Australian Treasury in areas such as tax-transfer system reform, financial and commodities markets analysis and macro-economic forecasting, including as part of the Treasury’s China Policy Unit. Brendan holds a Masters of International Development Economics from the Australian National University and Bachelors of Commerce and Arts from the University of Melbourne.