Prof Jane Burns

Professor of Innovation and Industry, University of Sydney

Position: Chair

NAC start date: 2015

Jane Burns is Professor of Innovation and Industry at the University of Sydney. In 2010 she raised $35 million as the founder and CEO of Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre, an organisation that over its five years drove industry focused research and development to explore the role of new and emerging technology in improving wellbeing.

Professor Burns was a winner in the category of Social Enterprise and Not-for-profit for 2015’s Australian Financial Review and Westpac Group 100 Women of Influence, and was a Victorian Finalist in the 2012 Telstra Business Women's Awards.

Professor Burns is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She provides strategic advice to the government, university and social enterprise sector and is a member of 10 advisory boards and government working groups, including the Vision for Australia Advisory Council, the Department of Communications Online Safety Working Group and the Department of Veterans' Affairs Clinical Reference Group.

Previous Directorships include the Cooperative Research Centres Association, the Bounceback and Thomas Kelly Foundations.

Professor Burns was Deputy Executive Officer and led the youth and public health agenda for beyondblue in its initial start up, was a Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellow at the University of California, San Francisco, and was Director of International Partnerships at Inspire Foundation driving growth in the US.

Professor Burns held a VicHealth fellowship from 2006-2013, an NHMRC fellowship from 1997-2000 and an NHMRC scholarship from 1994-1996. She has a PhD in Medicine from the Faculty of Medicine (Public Health and Epidemiology) University of Adelaide.