Allen, Geoff: - Geoff Allen has spent five decades at the intersection of business and government in Australia. As a Commonwealth public servant, he became senior advisor to the minister for labour, federal treasurer and leader of the Opposition in the 1970s. He was then appointed senior research fellow at the Melbourne Business School (MBS) where he pioneered the teaching and research in business government relations in Australia in the 1970s. He became deputy chairman of MBS for ten years and for twenty years continued to teach in MBA and executive programs.Allen was co-founder of the Business Council of Australia (BCA) and designed its structure and modus operandi. He was foundation CEO during Australia's Hawke-Keating era of major economic reform. During his time at BCA, Allen played a key role in creating business unity on vital national issues.He subsequently formed the Allen Consulting Group which led a new wave of outsourced public policy research, advising senior government and business clients. He served as chairman on several Commonwealth and state government advisory councils, including the Trade Policy Advisory Council and the Australian Statistics Advisory Council. He was a member of the government's Foreign Affairs Council and Prime Minister's Community Business Partnership, national chair of the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA), and director of several public companies in the mining and tertiary sectors.In 1990, Allen founded the Australian Centre for Corporate Public Affairs which has been the catalyst for thought leadership and professional development for corporate public affairs management in Australia for more than thirty years. He was also Asia-Pacific regional editor of the Journal of Public Affairs.He received a Centenary Medal for services to international trade and was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2009 in recognition of his contribution to business-government relations and public affairs.