Her Excellency Professor the Honourable Margaret Gardner AC is the 30th Governor of Victoria. Prior to her appointment as Governor, Professor Gardner was the President and Vice-Chancellor of Monash University (2014–23) and RMIT University (2005–14) and held senior positions at the University of Queensland and Griffith University. After attaining a first-class honours degree in economics and a PhD in industrial relations from the University of Sydney, Gardner was a Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cornell University, and University of California, Berkeley. Gardner is the former chair of the Group of Eight Universities in Australia, Universities Australia, Museums Victoria, the CASE Asia-Pacific Regional Council, the Strategic Advisory Committee and the Expert Panel of the Office of Learning and Teaching, and former director of Infrastructure Victoria and the Australia and New Zealand School of Government. She has also been a member of other boards and committees, including the Australian-American Fulbright Commission, the ANZAC Centenary Advisory Board and the International Education Advisory Committee, which led to the Chaney Report. In 2020 Gardner was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia for her eminent service to tertiary education through leadership and innovation in teaching and learning, research and financial sustainability.
