David Thodey AO

Co-Chair

David was appointed Chair of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation in February 2022. He is a business leader focused on innovation, technology and telecommunications with more than 40 years experience, including as CEO of Telstra, Australia’s leading telecommunications and information services company, and CEO of IBM Australia and New Zealand.

He is currently Chair of Tyro, Australia’s only independent EFTPOS banking institution and Xero, a cloud-based accounting software provider for small and medium-sized businesses and a non-executive director of Ramsay Health Care, a global hospital group.

Until recently, David was Chair of Australia’s national scientific research agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).

David is also active in public policy and led an Independent Review of the Australian Public Service (APS) in 2019. He chaired an eminent Panel appointed by the NSW Government to lead an independent review of Federal Financial Relations between the Commonwealth and the States.

In 2020, he was appointed Deputy Chair of the Federal Government’s National COVID-19 Coordination Commission (NCC) Advisory Board, supporting the Prime Minister and Government to navigate Australia through the extraordinary challenges faced during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.