David Andrew Newington Epstein is Principal Private Secretary to the

Prime Minister of Australia The prime minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The prime minister is the chair of the Cabinet of Australia and thus the head of the Australian Government, federal executive government. Under the pr ...

. He is a public affairs specialist, and was previously a company director, corporate adviser and Chair of Communications Compliance Limited, an independent consumer compliance monitoring body for the telecommunications industry.

Biography

He was educated at The

Geelong College The Geelong College is an Australian independent and co-educational, Christian day and boarding school located in Newtown, an inner-western suburb of Geelong, Victoria. Established in 1861 by Alexander James Campbell, a Presbyterian minister, ...

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

, and

The Wharton School The Wharton School ( ) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia. Established in 1881 through a donation from Joseph Wharton, a co-founder of Bethlehem Steel, the Wharton ...

(

UPenn The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of founder and first pre ...

). Epstein began his career as a political adviser, serving as Private Secretary to

John Dawkins John Sydney "Joe" Dawkins (born 2 March 1947) is an Australian former politician who was Treasurer in the Keating Labor government from December 1991 to December 1993. He is notable for his reforms of tertiary education as Minister for Empl ...

in the Employment, Education and Training portfolio, where he was involved in the campaign to introduce Australia's Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS), then serving as Director of the Ministerial Media Group and National Media Liaison Service for

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...

politicians

Bob Hawke Robert James Lee Hawke (9 December 1929 – 16 May 2019) was an Australian politician and trade unionist who served as the 23rd prime minister of Australia from 1983 to 1991. He held office as the Australian Labor Party, leader of the La ...

and

Paul Keating Paul John Keating (born 18 January 1944) is an Australian former politician and trade unionist who served as the 24th prime minister of Australia from 1991 to 1996. He held office as the leader of the Labor Party (ALP), having previously ser ...

during their terms as Prime Minister of Australia. He was then Chief of Staff to the Leader of the Federal Opposition

Kim Beazley Kim Christian Beazley (born 14 December 1948) is an Australian former politician and diplomat. Since 2022 he has served as chairman of the Australian War Memorial. Previously, he was leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and Leader of the ...

. In 1999, he left politics to head both the Australian Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association and Australian Telecommunications Industry Association. He was then recruited to Macquarie Corporate Telecommunications, to whom he remained an adviser after becoming a partner and Director o
Government Relations Australia
a corporate advisory firm. In June 2007, he was appointed Chief of Staff and Principal Adviser to

politician

Kevin Rudd Kevin Michael Rudd (born 21 September 1957) is an Australian diplomat and former politician who served as the 26th prime minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010 and June to September 2013. He held office as the Leaders of the Australian Labo ...

, first heading the Office of the Leader of the Opposition, then the Prime Minister's Office. US

State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs o ...

officials reported on his "significant" role in the Australian Labor Party campaign during the

2007 Australian Federal Election The 2007 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 24 November 2007. All 150 seats in the Australian House of Representatives, House of Representatives and 40 of the seats in the 76-member Australian Senate, Senate were up for electi ...

. In 2008 he was ranked second in the

Australian Financial Review The ''Australian Financial Review'' (''AFR'') is an Australian compact daily newspaper with a focus on business, politics and economic affairs. The newspaper is based in Sydney, New South Wales, and has been published continuously since its foun ...

's Covert Power list. Epstein resigned as Prime Minister's Chief of staff in late 2008 before accepting the position of Group Executive for Government and Corporate Affairs at

Qantas Qantas ( ), formally Qantas Airways Limited, is the flag carrier of Australia, and the largest airline by fleet size, international flights, and international destinations in Australia and List of largest airlines in Oceania, Oceania. A foundi ...

Airways Limited, and served on the Qantas Executive Committee. While at Qantas he managed the company's public response to the QF32 engine explosion incident, later attracting recognition from the pilot of the aircraft. Reportedly, he was also involved in negotiating the release of

Jetstar Jetstar Airways Pty Ltd, doing business as, trading as Jetstar, is an Australian low-cost airline headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Qantas, created in response to the threat posed by the ...

executives in Vietnam in the wake of

Jetstar Pacific Pacific Airlines Joint Stock Aviation Company (, operating as Pacific Airlines) is a low-cost airline and ground services provider headquartered in Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, with its primary operating base at Tan Son Nhat ...

losing $US31 million on disputed fuel-hedging contracts in 2008. Epstein was recruited to

BHP Billiton BHP Group Limited, founded as the Broken Hill Proprietary Company, is an Australian multinational mining and metals corporation. BHP was established in August 1885 and is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria. As of 2024, BHP was the world� ...

in late 2010 by CEO

Marius Kloppers Marius Jacques Kloppers (born 26 August 1962) is a South African-born Australian businessman and former Chief Executive Officer of BHP Billiton, the world's largest mining company. He was also Executive Director and Chairman of the Group Managem ...

, to a new role as company's Head of Group Public Affairs This was speculated to be part of a response to the failure of $US40 billion bid for

PotashCorp The Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, also known as PotashCorp, was a company based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The company merged with Calgary-based Agrium to form Nutrien, in a transaction that closed on January 1, 2018. The company was the ...

following a backlash over foreign ownership from Canadian politicians. During Epstein's tenure, BHP Billiton overtook Microsoft in size, by market capitalization, and reported a $22 billion annual profit. He left this role in September 2011, but remained a strategy and public affairs adviser to companies, serving as Vice President of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs for

Singtel Singapore Telecommunications Limited, trading as Singtel, is a Singaporean telecommunications conglomerate, the country's principal fixed-line operator and one of the four major mobile network operators operating in the country. Overview T ...

Optus Singtel Optus Pty Limited is an Australian Telecommunications in Australia, telecommunications company headquartered in Macquarie Park, a suburb in the Northern Sydney region of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is a wholly owned subsidiar ...

until 2017. He is now Executive Director o
The Chifley Research Centre
the official think-tank of the

and a company director. David Epstein was a non-executive director of the European Australian Business Council
Communications Compliance Limited
and

The Asia Society The Asia Society is a 501(c)(3) organization that focuses on educating the world about Asia. It has several centers in the United States (Manhattan, Washington, D.C., Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle) and around the world (Hong Ko ...

Australia Centre before returning to the Prime Minister's Office in 2024, and sat on boards of th
Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman
(TIO Limited) and th
Committee for Sydney
until 2018, and for three terms at

Opera Australia Opera Australia is the principal opera company in Australia. Based in Sydney, New South Wales, its performance season at the Sydney Opera House accompanied by the Opera Australia Orchestra runs for approximately eight months of the year, with t ...

until 2019. He was also a member of the advisory board for th
Headon Photofestival Foundation
and was appointed a
Adjunct Professor
in the Deakin Business School by Deakin University in January 2019. In July 2022, David Epstein was appointed Deputy Chair of the Open Gardens Victoria (OGV), and became Chair in 2023. In March 2024, Epstein returned to working in politics after being appointed as the Principal Private Secretary in the Prime Minister's Office of

Anthony Albanese Anthony Norman Albanese ( or ; born 2 March 1963) is an Australian politician serving as the 31st and current prime minister of Australia since 2022. He has been the Leaders of the Australian Labor Party#Leader, leader of the Labor Party si ...

Publications

No Longer At The Centre: Australia’s real relationship with Asia
', in
Disruptive Asia
' (Vol.1) © Asia Society Australia 2017.
''Bob Hawke's Asia Legacy'', in ''The Lowy Interpreter'', Lowy Institute, 2019

References

External links

*https://www.afr.com/politics/covert-power-20080926-j6zcx

*http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/business/big-firm-big-profit-big-problem-20110216-1awpu.html *http://m.theage.com.au/business/bhp-losing-iron-grip-20111019-1m83g.html *http://www.opera-australia.org.au/aboutus/opera_australia/board *http://www.smh.com.au/national/from-politics-to-business-comes-a-special-insight-20110724-1hvfs.html *http://www.eabc.com.au/david-epstein-2/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Epstein, David 1963 births Living people Australian corporate directors Australian National University alumni Qantas people Australian political consultants Australian Labor Party