Professor Peter Shergold is the chief executive of the Centre for Social Impact, a cross-university partnership based at the University of NSW.

He was Australia’s most senior public servant before retiring as secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet in February 2008.

He has held senior public service positions since 1987 including secretary of the Department of Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business and secretary of the Department of Education, Science and Training.

In 1972 he lectured at the University of New South Wales and became Head of the Department of Economic History at the University in 1985. He has twice been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and was elected a Fellow of The Academy of Social Sciences in Australia in 2005.