As Australia’s peak body for supporting health and medical research, the National Health and Medical Research Council, or NHMRC, has been instrumental in the exploration and development of some of Australia’s key medical findings and discoveries.
Warwick Anderson, CEO of NHMRC, spoke to The CEO Magazine about the important role NHMRC plays and how it’s shaping the future health and wealth of Australia.
The CEO Magazine: Can you give our readers an overview of your professional background leading up to and including your current position?
Warwick: I’m a researcher in a bureaucratic role. I was a full-time medical researcher and then an academic and researcher at Monash University. I had my own large research team before I dropped into the Australian public service and had to learn to be a senior bureaucrat whilst on the job! Fortunately, I had some great help from my senior colleagues over in the Department of Health to keep me on the straight and narrow. I’ve been in this job now for almost eight years.
I think to do this job, or the equivalent at the Australian Research Council, the experience of being a researcher helps you frame questions in a way that they can be properly investigated, and helps you understand the community that you’re working with.