Stan Wallis has 40-plus years of experience in industrial and financial services.

He started his career as a mill accountant at Amcor and worked his way up to Managing Director, a post he’d hold for 19 years, making him Australia’s longest-serving managing director. During this time, he transformed a domestic paper-making company into a global paper and packaging group, producing record profits and share prices. His considerable experience led him to be chosen to chair the inquiry into the Australian financial system in 1996 and 1997, for which he received the Centenary Medal in 2001.

During the late 1990s, he took on several high-profile directorships at firms including Coles Myer, Rubicon Systems and Santos. He presided over financial giant AMP during some troubled times, making headlines when he refused a $1.6 million retirement payment at a time of hefty payouts to other executives. He was a director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and Melbourne Business School, and President of the Business Council of Australia.

Stan Wallis became a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2002, “for service to business and manufacturing through strategic development of globally competitive enterprises, to enhancing the reputation of Australia internationally through reform of financial institutions and the taxation system, and to the community through support for medical research”