Michael Easson

Michael Bernard Easson AM (born March 1955 in Sydney, Australia), is an Australian businessman and former union leader.

Easson graduated with First Class Honours in Politics from the University of New South Wales in 1976 and completed management and finance programmes at Harvard and Stanford Business School University Business Schools in 1981 and 1997 respectively. He was Secretary of the Labor Council of New South Wales (now called Unions NSW) from 1989 to 1994. At the age of 34, he was elected as the youngest ever Secretary. He was also Vice President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions and Senior Vice President of the Australian Labor Party (New South Wales Branch). Whilst at the Labor Council he was Managing Director of Radio Station 2KY (1989 to 1994), elected Vice President of the ACTU (1993-1994) and co-founded Asset Super & Chifley Financial Services (both in 1989).

Michael Easson served as Chairman of the Review of Commonwealth Payments to Statutory Authorities and Special Purpose Payment to the States from 1995 to 1996. According to then Finance Minister John Fahey in 1997, this resulted in one-off saving of $400 million to the Commonwealth Government. He was a foundation Member of the National Competition Council (1996 to 1999) and an Assistant Commissioner and Commissioner of several Productivity Reports, including the review of Work, Health and Safety in Australia (1994-1995).

Michael Easson was the inaugural Chairman of the NSW Urban Taskforce, an urban planning think tank in Australia.

After resigning from the Labor Council in 1994, Michael Easson pursued several business and academic interests. He was Adjunct Professor of Management at the Australian Graduate School of Management from 1994 to 1998 and served as senior Vice President of UNICEF Australia from 1998 to 2002 and as a member of the Board of the Museum of Contemporary Arts (1999-2000) and as a Director of the Sydney Symphony (1995-1996).

Michael Easson was a director NSW State Superannuation Board and predecessor boards (1986-1995), the State Rail Authority of NSW (1989-1993), NRMA Insurance (1993 to 1996), Macquarie-Goodman Industrial Fund (1994-2003), Barclay Mowlem Australia (1998-2000), InTech (1998-2003), Macquarie Infrastructure Group (1996 to 2007), Kaldor family company boards in apparel, chemicals and office works (1997 to 2004), Metro Transport Sydney (2002-2006) and Sydney Roads Group (2006-2007).

He presently serves on the boards of the ACTEW Corporation, the ING Group Real Estate Group in Australia and Telstra Stadium.

Michael Easson, along with Sydney businessmen Adam and Shane Geha, formed the EG Property Group, of which he is Executive Chairman. The EG Group has two divisions; property advisory and funds management. The advisory division formed in 1999 advises large property owners about land use change. The funds management division formed in 2002 directly invests into real estate with a focus on new infrastructure. The funds management division has approximately $750 million under management with offices in Sydney, Perth and Melbourne.

Though still a member of the Australian Labor Party, he is not actively involved. Michael Easson is married to former federal politician Mary Easson (Member for Lowe, from 1993 to 1996). They have two daughters. In 1997 Michael Easson was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) and he is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (FAICD).

External links

• EG Property Group
• ACTEW Board Members
• Telstra Stadium Board Members
• Macquarie Infrastructure Group Board
• ING Real Estate Board

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Name	Easson, Michael
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Date of birth	1955
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