Brendan Crabb, Director and CEO at Burnet Institute, shared on LinkedIn:
“Today marks 60 years on the planet for me.
A shout out to the 3 countries I have called home; the place of my early years and first school, India; the place of my adolescence, PNG; and my birthplace and home of now 42 years, Australia. A proud Australian, and a proud global citizen.
You can be both.
A shout out too to the institutions that have been so important to me, Port Moresby International High School, University of Melbourne, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research), The Kids Research Institute Australia, and of course Burnet Institute where I have spent the last 18+ years as Director and CEO. In my professional life, the older I get, the more I realise that building stronger public good institutions – and growing partnerships amongst those institutions and with others in the private and government sectors – is what motivates me, and what I value, probably more than anything else.
Peak bodies are also special to me; currently Australian Global Health Alliance and The Pacific Friends of Global Health; both of which I Chair, and in the past Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes (AAMRI) and Research Australia. Often relying on a great deal of volunteering, these and sister collective bodies like the Australian Council for International Development, Australian Society for Medical Research and The Group of Eight make such a positive difference to our society.
I have had a rich educational life, largely thanks to the tax paying community. My tertiary education was free, and indeed that was likely the key deciding factor in me going to university in the first place. I am very grateful for that, and have consciously done my best to serve the people who have been so good to me in this way, whether they knew it or not. Asking individuals to pay for their tertiary education is not a wise national strategy.
Thanks to the people who have helped me along the way; especially to my many professional partners to whom I owe a great deal. Too many to mention. Currently my own executive teams, especially at Burnet but also at the Alliance, are my closest working partners and I’m very grateful to all of them. We do good things together. And we have a good time doing it.
I look forward to working with you all in the (hopefully) many years to come. There is much to do for those of us keen on building stronger, resilient, and vastly more equitable communities.”
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