Chris Freeland

Chris Freeland has had an extensive professional career spanning leading law and consulting firms Baker McKenzie, The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Gilbert + Tobin, King & Wood (now King & Wood Mallesons) and Freehills (now Herbert Smith Freehills). He has lived and worked in New York, Beijing, Melbourne and Sydney and, in his current role, works across Asia.

Chris is is currently the Asia Pacific Managing Director of Baker McKenzie, one of the world's largest and most international law firms. Prior to taking on that role, he was the National Managing Partner of Baker McKenzie's Australian offices. Chris' previous roles include as a Partner and Chief Operating Officer of Gilbert + Tobin, Senior Adviser to the Leadership Team of King & Wood and General Manager in Australia and New Zealand of The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). For many years he was also a strategy consultant with BCG in the US and Australia, and commenced his career as a corporate lawyer with Herbert Smith Freehills (as it is now known).

Chris has been actively involved in a voluntary capacity throughout his career with not-for-profit organisations in the arts, social welfare and education sectors. In the arts sector, he was Chair of the Sydney Film Festival (one of the world's oldest continuously running film festivals), Chair of the NSW Government's Film and TV Advisory Committee and Chair of the NSW Government’s Arts and Cultural Policy Reference Group. In the education and social welfare sectors, he has been a Director of Berry Street Victoria, Vice President of the Melbourne Business School (Melbourne University) Alumni Council and is currently a member of the Monash University Law School External Professional Advisory Committee.

Chris has also played a broader leadership role across the legal profession, including in encouraging diversity in the profession. He founded and championed the Managing Partner Diversity Forum, comprising the Managing Partners (and other partners) of many of the largest Australian law firms, as a group focused on identifying and implementing ways to improve diversity across the profession.

In June 2018 Chris was recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours as a Member of the Order of Australia for “significant service to the arts in New South Wales particularly to the film industry, to business education, and to the community”.

Chris lives in Sydney with his wife Nicole McKenna (a fellow Monash Law alumnus) and daughters Isabella and Mia. He is also passionate about the arts - especially the film sector - and the AFL team the Sydney Swans.