Ian Smith
Chief Executive Officer
Ian is Chief Executive Officer of Gavin Anderson & Company (Australia) and part of the company’s worldwide Executive Committee. He established Kortlang Melbourne in 1995 before Gavin Anderson & Company acquired Kortlang in 1996.
Ian has devised and implemented communications strategies on a number of high-profile and complex public affairs projects and domestic and cross-border financial briefs. He has managed communications strategies for major financial transactions and is frequently requested to handle major adversarial political briefs. He led the communications strategies for the Telstra 2 Share Offer and the sale of Sydney Airport. He has managed communications on several M&A transactions.
Ian was a media advisor to the Victorian Coalition Government under Premier Kennett and previously worked with the South Australian Liberal Party. Ian was a journalist at the Advertiser in Adelaide and the Daily Advertiser, Wagga Wagga.
Ian was raised and educated in Britain, holds a Higher National Diploma in Business and Journalism from the London College of Printing and Journalism. He is on the board of The Lighthouse Foundation as well as Jirrawun Arts, an Aboriginal arts organisation based in the East Kimberley, and was formerly a director of Australian renewable energy company Novera (ASX: NVE).
He is a regular speaker at conferences in Australia and contributes opinion pieces to a number of major Australian newspapers.
