Member of the Board of the European Australian Business Council; Director, Public Affairs BHP Billiton

Mr Geoff Walsh AO joined BHP Billiton in November 2007 as Director, Public Affairs, after a wide career at the senior level in politics, government and the media.  He also spent time as a diplomat, working for the International Labour Organization in the United Nations Office at Geneva and later as the Australia Consul-General to Hong Kong.  He was National Secretary of the Australian Labor Party (2000-2003) and a senior adviser to Australian Prime Ministers Bob Hawke and Paul Keating.  He was Chief of Staff to Victorian Premier Steve Bracks and held a senior advisory position for Victorian Premier John Brumby. Geoff also served in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as Australian Consul-General in Hong Kong (1995-98) and as head of the department’s Public Affairs Division.

Geoff Walsh started his working life in journalism working for The Australian Financial Review, The Age, The Herald Sun and the Border Mail. In June 2005 he was awarded an AO in the Order of Australia for services to politics, tertiary education and promoting closer ties between Australia and Hong Kong.