Dr Deborah Glass OBE
Dr Deborah Glass OBE is a highly respected figure in the public sector known for her unwavering integrity and commitment to human rights, social justice and fairness.
Dr Glass was the Victorian Ombudsman, appointed to a 10-year term in 2014, responsible for investigations into Victorian government departments, local councils and statutory bodies, issuing 99 reports tabled in Parliament over the period. These included individual complaints and systemic issues, as well as referrals from Parliament, including the ‘Red Shirts’ case and the alleged politicisation of Victoria’s public sector. The Ombudsman is also Victoria’s human rights investigator, in which capacity she investigated the hard lockdown of Melbourne’s public housing towers in 2020 and the closure of the Victoria state border in 2021.
Dr Glass was raised in Melbourne where she obtained Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws degrees from Monash University. She practised law briefly before leaving Australia, travelling until her funds ran out, then working for a US investment bank in Switzerland. From there she moved into a career in financial services regulation, first with the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission where she was instrumental in raising standards in Hong Kong’s investment management industry. Moving to London in 1998 she was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the UK’s Investment Management Regulatory Organisation to manage its merger with the Financial Services Authority.
Changing course to police oversight, Dr Glass was appointed a Member of the UK’s Police Complaints Authority and then a Commissioner of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), the first agency with the powers to independently investigate the police in England and Wales. She headed up numerous criminal and misconduct investigations into police involving fatal police shootings, deaths in custody and police corruption, as well as the landmark investigation into the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster. She was appointed IPCC Deputy Chair in 2009 and in 2012, was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her service. Dr Glass was also recognised with a Monash University Distinguished Alumni Award for the Faculty of Law in 2016.
By chance, the end of her statutory term of appointment at the IPCC coincided with that of the Victorian Ombudsman. Dr Glass returned to Australia in 2014 to become the first, but happily not the last, woman to be appointed to the role. Her time in the role was characterised by many high-profile investigations that sought to improve fairness and integrity in public administration. Her legacy is built upon a commitment to transparency, accountability and justice amid political challenges and systemic inertia.
Dr Glass is currently an Honorary Fellow at the Melbourne Law School, where she is undertaking research into the independence of independent officers of Parliament, sponsored by the Centre for Public Integrity.