Jeremy (Jerry) Ellis (b. 1927) was Chairman of BHP from 1997 to 1999. Born in England, he was educated in Western Australia and gained a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford. After working for ICI in England and Australia he became the manager of planning and development for the BHP-owned Australian Wire Industries in Sydney in 1969. He became manager of the Australian Wire Rope Works, another BHP company, in 1971. He managed a number of operations within BHP before becoming deputy executive general manager of BHP Utah Minerals International in 1989 and a director of BHP in 1991. Also a former chairman of Sandvik Australia (1994-2002), he is currently chairman of the Pacifica Group and Black Range Minerals, and a director of GroPep and ANZ. A director of the Museum of Contemporary Art from 1996-1999, he is also currently Chancellor of Monash University, the chairman of the Australia-Japan Foundation and a council member of the Victorian College of the Arts.
