Saul Eslake worked as an economist in the Australian financial markets for 25 years, including as Chief Economist at McIntosh Securities (a stockbroking firm) in the late 1980s, Chief Economist (International) at National Mutual Funds Management in the early 1990s, and as Chief Economist at the Australia & New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) from 1995 to 2009.
Since leaving ANZ in August 2009 Saul has had a part-time role as Director of the Productivity Growth Program at the Grattan Institute, a non-aligned policy ‘think tank’ affiliated with Melbourne University, and more recently also as an Advisor in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ economics practice.
He is on the Boards of the Australian Business Arts Foundation (which promotes partnerships between business and the arts), Hydro Tasmania (Tasmania’s electricity generating business), and the University of Tasmania Foundation; chairs the Tasmanian Arts Advisory Board (which advises on the distribution of State Government grants to artists and arts companies); and is a member of the Australian Government’s National Housing Supply Council.
He was a member of the Howard Government’s Trade Policy and Foreign Affairs Advisory Council, and of the Tourism Forecasting Committee. He also served as a member of the Rudd Government’s Long-Term Tourism Strategy Steering Committee in 2008-09.
He has a first class honours degree in Economics from the University of Tasmania, and a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment from the Financial and Securities Institute of Australia. He has also completed the Senior Executive Program at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business in New York.