Mr Chris Wardlaw PSM OLY

Mr Chris Wardlaw has wide and deep experience in leading high performance in organisations and reform agenda across the education and sporting domains.

Mr Wardlaw is currently the Chair of the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, and Deputy Chair of the Australian Teaching and School Leadership. He is a facilitator for Whalan Learning Group, an executive coaching program for senior public servants.

Mr Wardlaw was awarded the Public Service Medal (PSM) in 2013 and made a Fellow of Monash University in 2014. He was awarded the Victorian Australian Council of Educational Leaders (ACEL) Headley Beare Educator of the Year in 2020.

Mr Wardlaw began his teaching career as an Economics and Economic History tutor at Monash University and later taught in the Victorian Government secondary school sector. He then moved into consultancy roles in the Department of Education, initially in regional positions and then in central office. Mr Wardlaw held key roles in many leading-edge Victorian education reforms, most recently serving as Deputy Secretary, Strategy and Review from 2009 to 2013 before ‘retiring’.

Mr Wardlaw also served as Deputy Secretary for Education in the Hong Kong Government from 2002 to 2008, having responsibility for curriculum, assessment and quality assurance for education. He oversaw a comprehensive reform program, which resulted in Hong Kong adopting a modernised curriculum and assessment system. These changes made a major contribution to Hong Kong’s development and have further improved its high standing in a range of international learning assessments.

Mr Wardlaw has had a parallel sporting career as an Australian Olympian in the 10,000 metres and marathon events at the 1976 and 1980 Olympic Games. Mr Wardlaw was a career long coach to highly successful marathoners Steve Moneghetti, and Kerryn McCann and the last coach of distance runner Craig Mottram.

Mr Wardlaw was the Head Coach of the Australian Track and Field Team at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, still the most successful team since the halcyon days of 1968. He has just concluded a six-year term as a Director on the Board of Athletics Australia and was recently made a Life Governor of Athletics Australia

This exemplary record of leadership in education and international sport gives Mr Wardlaw a unique combination of experience and insight to leadership and management across jurisdictions and in different reform contexts.