IDPwD Patron – Simon McKeon

Simon McKeon, the 2011 Australian of the Year has accepted an invitation from the Hon Jenny Macklin MP, Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and Senator Jan McLucas, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Carers to take on the role of Patron for 2011 International Day of People with Disability (IDPwD) and the National Disability Awards.

Simon is well equipped to take on the role as Patron for 2011 IDPwD having been diagnosed with MS in 2001. Whilst he refers to his diagnosis as the ‘easy end of the spectrum’ he encountered what his life may have been like if he had been struck down with a more permanent disability. He lost all vision and was paralysed from the waist down which he says gave him a ‘taste’ of disability and he will use this and the experience of growing up with a sister who has a disability in raising awareness of disability issues and promote the importance of IDPwD more broadly.

Simon is also Executive Chairman of Macquarie Group’s Melbourne office and specialises in mergers and acquisitions.

Simon has degrees in Law and Commerce from the University of Melbourne and prior to joining Macquarie, practised as a solicitor with Blake Dawson Waldron in Sydney. He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and also of FINSIA.

In 2010, Simon was appointed by the Federal Government as the Chairman of CSIRO.

He is an Australia Day Ambassador for the Victorian Government.

He is Chairman of Business for Millennium Development which is focussed on encouraging business to pursue opportunities in the developing world. He also serves on the Board of Red Dust Role Models which connects well known Australians with indigenous youth.

Simon is a member of the Big Issue Advisory Board and served on the Advisory Board for Melbourne’s successful tender for the 2008 Homeless World Cup. He has also been Chairman of Essendon Football Club’s Hutchison Foundation and Patron of Melbourne’s successful tender for the 2009 World Parliament of Religions.

He is a Director of the Global Poverty Project which is responsible for the “1.4 Billion Reasons” campaign.

Simon is on the Board of UK based VisionFund which has responsibility for World Vision International’s micro economic development activities and also serves on the Federal Government’s Human Rights Grants Scheme Advisory Panel. He was also a Patron for the United Nations Year of Microcredit 2005 (Australian Committee). Simon served on the Board of World Vision Australia from 1994 until 2005 and prior to this was a Director of the Archbishop of Melbourne’s Relief and Development Fund.

He was appointed by the Federal Government as the Founding President of the Australian Takeovers Panel and served from 1999 until 2010.

Simon was the Founding Chair of MS Research Australia from 2004 until 2010 and has also previously served on the Boards of MS Australia and MS Victoria. In 2010, Simon received the John Studdy Award which is MS Australia’s highest honour. He currently serves as Ambassador for National Disability Services – Victoria and also serves as a member of the Victorian Government’s National Disability Insurance Scheme Implementation Task Force.

Simon served as a member of the Strategic Advisory Board of the University of Melbourne’s Graduate Program in Law. He has also been a part time lecturer with the University’s Masters of Applied Finance and Masters of Laws courses and has been a member of the Advisory Board of the University’s Centre for Energy and Resources Law. He has also been on the Editorial Board of the Company & Securities Law Journal since 1988 and has responsibility for its Takeovers Section.

Simon served as Chairman of the Board of the Association of Independent Schools of Victoria from 2005 until 2008. He has previously served on the Victorian Rhodes Scholarship Committee, the Council of St Leonard’s College and the Board of Beaconhills Christian College.

Simon served as Chairman of the Federal Government’s Point Nepean Community Trust from 2004 until 2009 and has been the Business Ambassador for the World Wildlife Fund’s Earth Hour initiative and an Ambassador for Parks Victoria’s Healthy Parks Healthy People International Congress 2010.

He was also Chairman of MYOB from 2006 until 2009.

Simon is the helmsman of Macquarie Innovation which in March 2009 became the first sailboat in the world to sustain more than 50 knots and in so doing, peaked at a speed of 100 kmh (54 knots). Previously he was the helmsman of the Yellow Pages Endeavour which held the outright world sailing speed record between 1993 and 2004.

He was also the helmsman for Australia’s Little America’s Cup syndicate which held the trophy from 1985 until 1996. He is a Patron of the Australian Olympic Sailing Team which won 2 gold and a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Simon sails out of McCrae Yacht Club and served as Club Captain from 2004 until 2006.