John Fast
John Fast is an economist and lawyer.
He is a graduate of Monash University having graduated in 1971 with Honours in Economics and with Honours in Law in 1973.
After leaving Monash, he practised law as a corporate commercial lawyer and was the Senior Commercial Partner at Arnold Bloch Leibler, specialising in mergers and acquisitions, corporate law, governance, taxation, trusts and advice and planning for high net-worth individuals and family groups.
In 1999, John joined BHP as a senior executive, having initially taken up an executive role as Chief Legal Counsel and member of the Policy Committee (subsequently the Office of Chief Executive). John was central to the large restructure that rebuilt and repositioned that company and was the principal architect and one of the chief strategists in the formation of the dual listing with Billiton Ltd, the divestment of the BHP steel businesses and, subsequently, the acquisition of WMC Resources Limited. At BHP he served in various commercial capacities, took on broad executive and strategic responsibilities and was a core member of the successive CEO’s executive group, as well as acting Chairman of the Investment Review Committee.
After BHP, where he had developed an expertise in cross border risk, John founded an international specialist advisory firm which aims to create competitive advantage for its clients through understanding and managing risk and delivering practical solutions in difficult and intricate situations, jurisdictions and countries. John is the Executive Chairman of Seawick Pty Ltd, which provides those services.
John has worked on public policy and authored submissions and opinion pieces focussing on Corporate Law reform. He has also been a guest lecturer in International Government Affairs to students enrolled in the Master of International Relations program at the School of Social and Political Sciences at Melbourne University. Until 2014, he was a Member of the Australian Government’s Corporations Takeovers Panel, having been appointed and re-appointed for three successive terms of three years each, being the maximum length of time that can be successively served by Members of that Panel
John also acts as a consultant on strategy and risk to a number of public and private corporations and has authored and published several professional publications.
John has had a very long history of involvement with the not-for-profit sector, with particular interest relating to medical research and indigenous education. He also has an extensive interest in music.
John is a director of a number of companies, including as Chairman of the Norman Beischer Medical Research Foundation.