Council Members

Ms Louise Sylvan

Ms Louise Sylvan is Deputy Chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. She was formerly the Chief Executive of the Australian Consumers' Association (ACA) and President of Consumers International.

An active member and worker in consumer protection nationally and internationally for over 15 years, Louise is well known for her work in enhancing consumer rights in a range of areas such as health, food safety issues, financial services, as well as in competition and consumer policy.

Louise’s strong impact on the issues of the day was recognised in her inclusion as one of Australia’s 20 True Leaders in 2002 by the Australian Financial Review’s BOSS magazine.

Currently, Louise is a member of the global Steering Group which is formulating the Intellectual Property Charter, is part of Australia’s delegation for the OECD’s Consumer Policy Committee and serves nationally on the federal government’s Expert Group in Electronic Commerce and the Australian Statistics Advisory Council to the ABS and is a member of the RegNet Board of Advisory Fellows. Prior memberships included six years on the Australian Prime Minister's Economic Planning Advisory Council and the Self-Regulation Task Force in 1999-2000.

Louise has a BA and MPA from universities in her original homeland of Canada and immigrated to Australia in 1983.

Louise has been a member of the Medical Foundation Council since April 2004.