Professor Margaret Seares AO

Margaret Seares is holds the position of Senior Deputy Vice Chancellor at The University of Western Australia.

She holds a PhD from UWA in Music, her field of specialty being the keyboard music of the 18^th century.  From 1991-1995 she was Head of the School of Music, and Deputy Chair of the Academic Board at UWA, and from 1994-5 she was a member of the University Senate, the governing body.

In 1995 she accepted a two-year secondment to the position of Chief Executive Officer with the West Australian Department for the Arts (now the Department of Culture & the Arts). The position involved the management of the arts portfolio, the management of the Government’s arts funding process, and providing advice to the Minister on the arts policies of the day. During this time she was a member of the boards of the Western Australian Museum, the Art Gallery of WA, the Perth Theatre Trust, Opera Australia, and of the Advisory Board of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra.

In 1997 she was appointed to a 4-year term as Chair of the Australia Council, the Australian Government’s arts funding and advisory agency. The Council is responsible for funding the arts across the spectrum, ranging from literature to opera, and works with a budget of around $120m.   It is also the principal source of policy advice for the Federal Minister for the Arts and his department.

In addition to membership of the Australia Council, she was a member of the Foreign Minister’s Australia International Cultural Council and a Director of the Australia Business Arts Foundation.

Since completion of her term as Chair of the Australia Council she has been a member of the Australia-Japan Foundation, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Arts Advisory Committee (of which she was Chair), the Expert Advisory Committee for Humanities & Creative Arts for the Australian Research Council, and the Chair of the National Collections Advisory Forum. In 2006 she completed the task of chairing the National Review of Music Education for the Federal Minister for Education, the recommendations of which are in the process of consideration and implementation.

She has just completed her final term as a member of the National Australia Day Council, and the Board of the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, and remains a member of the Board of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra,  of the Council of Scotch College (WA), and of the General Council of the WA Chamber of Commerce & Industry.   

Professor Seares is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

In 2003 Professor Seares was awarded the Officer of the Order of Australia in recognition of her work for the arts and education.

Within the University of Western Australia she has line management responsibility for all the Faculties, and additional policy responsibility for Human Resource and Community Outreach, and she shares the External Relations portfolio with the Vice Chancellor.

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