Mr David Hawkins

For over 30 years, Mr Hawkins has worked and led manufacturing and distribution businesses in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) based industries. He values inclusive leadership that builds trust, mutual accountability and supports people to be their best. His belief and experience is that the best organisations engage their people, value diversity, understand their value proposition and are aligned in purpose.

Currently, Mr Hawkins is Chair and Managing Director for the companies of BASF in Australia and New Zealand. BASF is a German chemical manufacturer with a purpose of “we create chemistry for a sustainable purpose” and a desire to lead the chemical industry and customers on a journey to net zero through technology and innovation. David is also Chair of Chemistry Australia, a role he’s had since 2020, which is the pre-eminent voice of the chemistry industry in Australia to help formulate policy, lead stewardship through the Responsible Care program and transition the industry in a low carbon world. His key achievements in this role was the establishment of the annual awards to celebrate successes in the chemical industry and the building with the CEO of the Emerging leaders advisory council to develop young leaders in key skills of strategy, governance, leadership and government relations.

Mr Hawkins holds Bachelor degrees in Engineering (Chemical Engineering with Honours) and Science from Monash University, and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Deakin University. He is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Mr Hawkins’ career began at Pilkington Glass in a technologist role and through varied experiences across production, quality, supply chain, strategy, systems and business processes appreciated how business and production systems worked. He started with BASF Australia at the end of 1999 and extended this learning with leadership roles in all the functional areas culminating with his appointment to the Chair and Managing Director in July of 2016.

Mr Hawkins’ passion for organisations that are ‘great places to work’ extended into the value of diverse and inclusive workforces. He counts as his greatest achievement the employee-led diversity and inclusion activities within BASF Australia that have lifted the representation of women from 23% to 36% and is determined to reach a 40:40:20 target by 2025.

Mr Hawkins has also shared his experience by volunteering on the Advisory Council for the Dean of Engineering at Monash since 2019, is a member of the Risk Advisory Committee at Siena College (since 2023) and helps support his daughter through team management and assistant coaching of her team at the Waverley Falcons basketball club.