2023 Kenneth Myer Lecture: Melbourne

Join us at the Arts Centre in Melbourne for the 2023 Kenneth Myer Lecture.

The lecture will be delivered by Professor Glyn Davis AC. Professor Davis will trace the rise of large philanthropic foundations in Australia, pioneered by the Myer family, and ask about their role in helping – and challenging – government to work more effectively in communities which live with disadvantage.

Entry is free to this event but bookings are essential.

The Kenneth Myer Lecture is generously supported by The Myer Foundation.

Program

6.00pm–7:00pm: Lecture followed by Q&A
7:00pm–8:00pm: Reception

About Professor Glyn Davis AC

Professor Glyn Davis AC was appointed as the Secretary to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet with effect from 6 June 2022. Prior to his appointment, Professor Davis served as Chief Executive Officer of the Paul Ramsay Foundation, Australia's largest charitable foundation with a mission to break the cycle of disadvantage. 

In his academic life, Professor Davis has served as Vice-Chancellor at the University of Melbourne and Griffith University and, until recently, as Distinguished Professor of Political Science in the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University. He remains a Visiting Professor at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, and a Visiting Fellow at Exeter College. He also holds visiting professorial appointments at King's College London, Manchester University and the Faculty of Arts, University of Melbourne. 

Professor Davis is a public policy specialist, with experience in government and higher education, who delivered in 2010 the Boyer Lectures on the theme 'The Republic of Learning'. His community work includes partnering with Indigenous programs in the Goulburn–Murray Valley and Cape York, and service on a range of arts boards, including the Queensland and Melbourne Theatre Companies. In late 2021 he took on the role as Chair of Opera Australia. His most recent book is On Life's Lottery (Hachette, 2021), an essay on our moral responsibility toward those less well off. 

About the Kenneth Myer Lecture

The Kenneth Myer Lecture commenced in 1990 as a major annual event for the Friends of the National Library of Australia. The lecture was named for Kenneth Baillieu Myer, AC who was Chairman of the National Library Council from 1972 to 1982 and a long-time friend of the Library.

The prescription for the lecture is simple and based on the views of Kenneth Myer. As a businessman and philanthropist with a wide range of cultural and social commitments, he saw it as an opportunity for an eminent Australian to make a significant statement on a broad subject of particular interest to them.

Learn more about the Kenneth Myer lecture and previous speakers.