Graeme Julian Samuel AC (born 31 May 1946) is an Australian businessman. He was the Managing Director and head of the

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

office of M&A advisory firm Greenhill Caliburn, and is a member of the

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 ...

Council. He previously served as the chairman of the

Australian Competition & Consumer Commission The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is the chief competition regulator of the Government of Australia, located within the Department of the Treasury. It was established in 1995 with the amalgamation of the Australian Tra ...

from 1 July 2003 to 31 July 2011.

Early life and education

Samuel was educated at

Wesley College, Melbourne Wesley College is a co-educational, open-entry private school in Melbourne, Australia. Established in 1866, the college is the only school in Victoria to offer the International Baccalaureate (IB) from early childhood to Year 12. The college ...

, and studied law at both the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

(

LLB A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

) and

Monash University Monash University () is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Named after World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the ...

(

LLM A large language model (LLM) is a language model trained with Self-supervised learning, self-supervised machine learning on a vast amount of text, designed for natural language processing tasks, especially Natural language generation, language g ...

). He has had a long career in law, working as a partner in Melbourne law firm Phillips Fox & Masel, and in business served as the executive director of

Macquarie Bank Macquarie Group Limited (), more commonly known as Macquarie Bank, is an Australian multinational investment banking and financial services group headquartered in Sydney and listed on the ASX (). Macquarie's investment banking division is Au ...

from 1981 to 1986.

Career

Samuel has also had extensive involvement in senior levels of sports management in Australia. Samuel was a member of the

Australian Rugby League Commission The Australian Rugby League Commission Limited (ARL), formerly the Australian Rugby Football League Limited known as the Australian Rugby League is an Australian rugby league football competition operator. It was founded in 1986 as the Australi ...

, which governs the NRL and is a former commissioner of the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

(he became a life member of the league in 1995). During his time as AFL commissioner, Samuel was one of the so-called "faceless men" who were vilified by supporters during the attempted merger or relocation of clubs such as Footscray, Fitzroy,

and Hawthorn. On 3 May 1995, ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'' highlighted Samuel's vision for the future of the AFL under the title 'The Samuel Vision' — which included the following major points: * Port Adelaide's entry to the AFL is a priority * The AFL is being damaged by maintaining 11 clubs in Victoria * Fitzroy should consider merging with

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

* Commission should no longer deal with issues of discipline *

Waverley Park Waverley Park (also and originally called VFL Park) is an Australian rules football stadium in Mulgrave, Victoria, Australia. The first venue to be designed and built specifically for Australian Rules football, for most of its history, its pu ...

's future will depend on how many clubs are in the competition * A minimum salary cap should be considered for clubs *

Western Oval Whitten Oval (also known as Mission Whitten Oval under a naming rights agreement) is a stadium in the inner-western suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, located in Barkly Street, Footscray. It is the training and administrative headquart ...

is not necessarily the best place for Footscray * Minimum level of contribution to AFL revenue a condition of clubs keeping license Samuel was also the chairman of the Melbourne and Olympic Parks Trust, which oversees both

Melbourne Park Melbourne Park is a sports venue in the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Precinct in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Since 1988, Australia's bicentenary, Melbourne Park has been home of the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament play ...

and

Olympic Park An Olympic Park is a sports campus for hosting the Olympic Games. Typically it contains the Olympic Stadium and the International Broadcast Centre. It may also contain the Olympic Village or some of the other sports venues, such as the aquatics ...

. In July 2012, Samuel was appointed Chairman of the Victorian

Taxi Services Commission Commercial Passenger Vehicles Victoria (CPVV), until 2 June 2018 called the Taxi Services Commission (TSC), is the Government agency responsible for the regulation of the taxi and hire car industries in the State (Australia), State of Victoria ...

following the Victorian Government's initiative to clean up and provide better regulation around the taxi cab industry. The Government's Taxi Industry Inquiry headed by

Allan Fels Allan Herbert Miller Fels (born 7 February 1942) is an Australian economist, lawyer and public servant. He was most widely known in his role as chairman of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) from its inception in 1995 unt ...

recommended sweeping reforms to improve taxi services in Victoria. Samuel is charged with overseeing on the ground implementation of Fels' reforms. From 29 October 2019, Samuel conducted the second independent review of the

Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 The ''Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999'' (Cth) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia that provides a framework for protection of the Australian environment, including its biodiversity and its natural and cult ...

, the primary biodiversity protection legislation in Australia. Supported by an expert panel, the final report was submitted on 30 October 2020 to the Minister of the Environment,

Sussan Ley Sussan Penelope Ley (pron. , "Susan Lee"; ; born 14 December 1961) is an Australian politician who is the current Leader of the Opposition (Australia), Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia, leader of the Liberal ...

, making 38 recommendations.

Not For Profit roles

Chair of Dementia Australia

Recognition

On 8 June 1998 he was appointed an

Officer of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

. On 14 June 2010 he was promoted to

Companion of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

in the Queens's Birthday Honours list for services to the community, public administration, economic reform and corporate law. On 1 January 2001 he was awarded the

Centenary Medal The Centenary Medal is an award which was created by the Australian Government in 2001. It was established to commemorate the centenary of the Federation of Australia and to recognise "people who made a contribution to Australian society or g ...

. On 16 January 2001 he was awarded the

Australian Sports Medal The Australian Sports Medal is an award given to recognise achievements in Australian sport to commemorate Australian participation in major sporting events. Original recipients of the award included competitors, coaches, sports scientists, off ...

.It's an Honour: Australian Sports Medal
. Retrieved 6 July 2013

References

External links

Australian Telecommunications Users Group biography

- ''Big Ideas''

Radio National ABC Radio National, more commonly known as Radio National or simply RN, is an Australian nationwide public service radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2. ...

May 2006 {{DEFAULTSORT:Samuel, Graeme 1946 births Living people Australian Jews Australian businesspeople Australian public servants Australian Rugby League Commissioners Lawyers from Melbourne People educated at Wesley College (Victoria) Melbourne Law School alumni Monash Law School alumni Companions of the Order of Australia Recipients of the Australian Sports Medal