Tony Hartnell AM
Tony started his studies during the University’s very early days, and has many fond memories and entertaining stories about life on campus. One of the first residents of Bruce Hall, Tony can recall having to trudge through the mud on the construction site.
As Editor of the student newspaper Woroni in 1963, President of the Students’ Association (SRC) in 1964 and President of the Union in 1965, he remembers well the early days of undergraduate teaching at ANU.
After graduating, he carved out a successful career in the Australian Public Service, working in senior and executive roles in the Attorney-General’s Department and the Department of Business and Consumer Affairs. From 1989 to 1992 he was the founding chairman of the Australian Securities Commission. He then went on to become a commercial lawyer with Allen, Allen & Hemsley, before co-founding Atanaskovic Hartnell in 1994.
In 1994 his work with the Australian Securities Commission was recognised with a Member of the Order of Australia, and he was also awarded a Centenary Medal in 2001 for ‘outstanding service to corporate regulation in Australia’.
His active involvement with ANU has continued long after graduation. Tony is one of the University’s longest standing volunteers, having been a member of the Board of Governors of the ANU Endowment for Excellence, a substantial body of endowed funds established to make the University’s 50th anniversary to help support ANU in delivery excellence in research, education and community engagement, since 2000, and President since 2009.
He has been instrumental in developing the Endowment, and recently led the redrafting of the Endowment Statute and Rules, two major parts of the University’s legislation which give a strong legal basis for the safeguarding of donated funds.
Tony was a champion for the establishment of Alumni Relations & Philanthropy at ANU, ensuring that the importance of alumni and giving to the University is entrenched in its future, and has worked closely with the University to re-shape the way that the Governors work with the University to support its now expanded philanthropic mission.
