Senior Executive Profiles

Michael Thorne became Executive Director, Chancellery at Swinburne University of Technology in 2006. He joined Swinburne in 2003 as Executive Officer, Office of the Vice-Chancellor. Prior to coming to Swinburne, Michael was a Senior Policy Officer in the Victorian Department of Education and Training where he worked in tertiary education policy development. Before that, Michael was a Policy Adviser in the Victorian Department of Natural Resources and Environment, where he co-ordinated Victoria’s input into a wide range of Ministerial Councils and provided a wide range of policy advice on environmental and primary resource matters.

Michael’s academic qualifications are a Bachelor of Arts (Honours), a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) and PhD in Political History, all from the University of Melbourne. His doctorate examined the philosophical origins of liberal democracy in America and Britain. Much of his doctoral research was undertaken at University of Pennsylvania, where he was a Visiting Research Fellow and, in particular, at Oxford University where he spent a year as a student at Corpus Christi College.

As Executive Director, Chancellery, Michael is responsible for ensuring the effective and efficient operation of the University’s Governance and Policy Unit, Media and Communications Unit, Audit and Risk function and Swinburne’s Legal Office.