BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Ian McRae

Ian McRae is currently Chairman of the Australian Ballet School and a Director of Bangarra Dance Theatre, Melbourne Recital Centre and Malthouse Theatre. He is a member of the Australian International Cultural Council and Deputy Chair of the Australian National Commission of UNESCO.

He has just completed a five and a half year term as a member of the Australia Council, where he was Chair of its Theatre Board and a member of its Audit and Finance Committee. He has also just retired from the Tasmanian Arts Advisory Board.

Ian was General Manager of The Australian Ballet from 1991 to 2002; a national flagship company which performs throughout Australia and internationally.

He joined the Ballet in May 1986 after five years as Administration Manager of the Victorian Arts Centre. His time at the Arts Centre in Melbourne covered the exciting period of establishing the organisation and its operating philosophies - and the opening of the theatres and concert hall.

A Chartered Accountant, he spent twelve years in that profession before accepting the role of Administration Manager with the Australian Conservation Foundation. He later moved into private enterprise where he held senior financial and management positions.

Ian has been extensively involved in voluntary work throughout his career - including four years as President of the National Youth Council of Australia and Treasurer of the Asian Youth Council - and seven months in Rome as consultant at the invitation of the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

He was a member of the Council of the Victorian College for the Arts from 1993 to 2006 and its President from 2004-2006. He has been a member of the Board of the Heide Museum of Modern Art (1989–1998) and the Council of the Australian Ballet School (1990–1996) and was Vice President of the Australian Entertainment Industry Association. He has also been a Board member of Bell Shakespeare Company and Orchestra Victoria and a member of the Victorian Council for the Arts.

In 2002 he was honoured as Cultural Leader of the Year by the Australian Business Arts Foundation.