Margaret Fitzherbert

Margaret is a CEO with strategic experience across government. As a former member of parliament, a published writer and commentator, and as a person with a naturally curious mind, Margaret leads with insight and a focus on long term impact. Margaret’s current role is with the McKinnon Institute for Political Leadership. MKI is a specialist organisation with a mission to build parliamentary bench-strength in Australia. Built on an innovative partnership between a philanthropic foundation and Monash University, Margaret was appointed as the inaugural CEO in 2019. She has led the organisation through start-up, COVID, and is now focusing on scaling the significant impact that has already been achieved. Almost 20% of Australian MPs have participated in McKinnon Institute programs. Prior to this Margaret has had an interesting journey. Earlier in her career, Margaret worked as an industrial advocate, and was an advisor to two federal ministers. Key roles after this tapped into her communications strengths and she held a number of specialist communications roles for ANZ and NAB. Margaret served as an MP in the State Parliament of Victoria, where she was Shadow Assistant Minister for Health, and other portfolios. Margaret is personally resilient and committed to the work of deep systems change, she has a political nous for driving the right priorities.