Michael Kilgariff

Peak national body Australian Logistics Council (ALC) plays an important role within society. It facilitates links between the freight logistics industries, government, and communities, and represents major supply-chain customers, providers, infrastructure owners, and suppliers. The organisation’s core aim is to promote effective policy with regard to regulation, infrastructure, safety, and technology to benefit the majority of its members.

In 2009, ALC decided to move its national office to Canberra. The reason was simple. The logistics industry is a big one, and ALC needed an effective national voice. But Australian advocacy organisations need more than just a mere office presence in Canberra to be effective; they need the determination of a chief executive to marshal coherent, unified messages on policy. And they need highly professional staff in the secretariat to ensure those messages are crafted and heard where they are needed— at all levels of government, in the bureaucracy, in industry, and among the community more widely.

Shortly after the move to Canberra, ALC made another big move: It employed Michael Kilgariff as its chief executive, appointing him to the board as managing director. Michael had significant experience in government, industry associations, and industry, and he had a good theoretical underpinning for policy work as a graduate in economics from the Australian National University.