Professor Glyn Davis AC is Secretary to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Prior to his appointment, Professor Davis served as Chief Executive Officer of the Paul Ramsay Foundation, Australia's largest philanthropic trust. From 2005 to 2018 he was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne and Professor of Political Science in the Faculty of Arts. He was previously Vice-Chancellor of Griffith University and Distinguished Professor of Political Science in the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University. He held postgraduate appointments as a Harkness Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, Brookings Institution in Washington, and the John F Kennedy School of Government, Harvard and holds emeritus roles at universities around the world. Davis has made significant contributions to higher education as chair of the global network of leading international universities Universitas 21, and as chair of Group of Eight Universities in Australia and Universities Australia. He served as Director-General of Queensland’s Department of Premier and Cabinet and was Foundation Chair of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government. His community work includes partnering with First Nations programs in the Goulburn–Murray Valley and Cape York, and serving on a range of arts boards, including Opera Australia and the Queensland and Melbourne theatre companies. In 2010, Davis delivered the Boyer Lectures on the theme ‘The Republic of Learning: Higher education transforms Australia’.
