Donald McDonald (ABC chairperson)

Donald Benjamin McDonald (born 1 September 1938) AC is an Australian arts administrator and between 1996 and 2006 was chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia's national public broadcaster. In 2007, he was appointed director of the Australian Classification Board.

He has been involved in the administration of various arts enterprises for many years including the Sydney Theatre Company and Musica Viva Australia. He was chief executive of the Australian Opera Company for ten years until his retirement in December 1996. As well as his high profile ABC position, McDonald is currently chairman of the Asia-Pacific branch of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group (The Really Useful Company Asia Pacific Pty Ltd) and a member of the Board of the University of New South Wales Foundation. McDonald was also a former chairman of the Constitutional Centenary Foundation.

McDonald was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1991 and is married to Janet McDonald AO.

He has often been criticised for being too elitist and for being a political appointee to the ABC position because of his arts background and family connections.^[1] He and his wife have long been associated with the Liberal Party of Australia. His brother Bruce McDonald was briefly Leader of the opposition of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly before losing the seat he contested in 1981. The McDonalds are personal friends of former Prime Minister John Howard and his wife.

References

1. ^ "It's his ABC". Interview with Michael Smith at the The Age. 2003-04-06. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/04/05/1049459857352.html. Retrieved 2006-10-10. 

Preceded by Mark Armstrong

Chair, Australian Broadcasting Corporation 1996-2006

Succeeded by Maurice Newman

Persondata
Name	McDonald, Donald
Alternative names
Short description	arts administrator
Date of birth	1938-09-01
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death