I am pleased to announce that the Board of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) has appointed Mr. Peter Anderson as its Chief Executive.

ACCI is Australia’s peak council of business organisations, and the nation’s largest and most representative voice of industry.

Peter Anderson has outstanding qualifications for this role, and the Board and members of ACCI are delighted that he has accepted this position of national leadership.

Peter has 24 years of expertise in the private and public sector, with employer bodies and governments, in policy and law, and at national, state and international levels.

He is highly regarded and respected amongst leaders of business organisations and many external stakeholders, in Australia and overseas.

He has been acting Chief Executive of ACCI since 16 January. He had been ACCI’s Director of Workplace Policy for the preceding six years.

Further details of Peter’s professional background are attached.

Peter assumes this role at a time of great opportunity and challenge for the private sector, concurrent with multiple service demands on business organisations, global economic pressures on industry and the vitality brought to policy by a new national government.

Statement by Tony Howarth AO, President

For further information:

Peter Anderson Chief Executive 03 9668 9950 / 0417 264 862

Brett Hogan Director of Communications 03 9668 9950 / 0407 273 884

Peter is 48 years of age, born in Adelaide, and attended the inner north-west Brompton Primary School and Woodville High School.

He holds an Honours Degree of Bachelor of Laws from the University of Adelaide (concerning comparative constitutional law and the power to tax), and a Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice.

During his 24 years of professional employment, he has spent 16 years in the private sector (1984-1993 and 2002-2008) and 7 years with government (1994-2001).

He has professional expertise in public policy, employment law, industrial relations, federalism, constitutional law and administrative law.

At 28 years of age he was appointed Executive Director of the Retail Traders Association of South Australia (from 1988 to 1991), formerly being its Legal and Industrial Officer. In this period he ushered through the industry, the State Government and parliament major changes to retail trading hours, industrial relations and retail leasing arrangements.

He was a partner in the leading South Australian commercial law firm Fisher Jeffries from 1992-1994.

In 1994 he was appointed a senior adviser to the South Australian Government in his areas of professional expertise, and became chief of staff to then South Australian Premier Hon. Dean Brown MP in 1996.

Between 1997 and 2001 he was a senior adviser to the Australian Government advising on industrial relations, employment, small business, trade practices and workplace health and safety.

In 2002 he became ACCI’s Director of Workplace Policy, and was appointed acting Chief Executive in January 2008.

He is a contributing author to a teaching text on Business Law.

He holds statutory and ministerial appointments to a wide-range of national bodies concerning workplace matters. He is also a member of the statutory Administrative Review Council, which advises the Attorney-General on administrative law.

He is the leading representative of Australian business organisations at an international level, being an elected member of the governing body of the International Labour Organisation, member of the management board of the International Organisation of Employers, executive member of the Confederation of Asia-Pacific Employers, and delegate to the International Chamber of Commerce and the Confederation of Asia-Pacific Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

He has three teenage children, and is a devotee of recreational cycling.