Business School events

Business School Annual Lecture Series

The UWA Business School hosts a series of annual public lectures honouring a history of professors and alumni from the school. These lectures each focus on a key area of study including Accounting, Finance, Economics, Management and Marketing with topics changing each year to discuss relevant developments in industry, media and events across the globe. The keynote speakers of these lectures are thought leaders in their fields from other universities, government, media, corporate organisations and not-for-profits world wide. All public lectures are free to attend and open to all.
The Shann Memorial Lecture

In memory of Edward Shann, each year the UWA Business School hosts the Shann Memorial Lecture, one of Australia's longest-running public lectures on economic policy.

This annual lecture honours the memory of the Foundation Chair of Economics and History at UWA, Edward Shann.  A collaboration between the UWA Economics Department and the Economic Society of Australia (WA Branch), it has been running continuously since the 1960's.  The lecture features an esteemed guest speaker, as well as an opportunity following the lecture for questions and discussion.

The Shann Memorial Lecture was established in 1963 when HC Coombs, the first RBA governor and Shann’s former student, gave the first lecture. Since then, speakers have included some of the world’s most influential economists, politicians and public servants, including Sir John Hicks (Oxford), Jerry Hausman (MIT), Avinash Dixit (Princeton), Boediono (the 11th Vice President of Indonesia),  Ian McFarlane, Glenn Stevens, Martin Parkinson, Alan Fels, Phillip Lowe and many others.

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UWA Archives 1993P Photographic portrait
Professor Edward Owen Giblin Shann - 1915
The Contemporary Issues in Family Business Lecture
The annual Contemporary Issues in Family Business Lecture is held each September, and is supported by Family Business Australia. Family businesses are the backbone of the Australian economy with almost 70% of businesses in Australia being family owned and operated. Each year the lecture is held to coincide with National Family Business Day and to recognise the contribution that family business make to the Australian community, economy and culture. The lecture hosts an eminent business or academic practitioner who gives an address on a contemporary issue facing family business.
The John Taplin Memorial Lecture

John Taplin AM had an enormous impact on transport economics, being a pioneer in the area of modelling travel choices and demand elasticities, applying genetic algorithms to optimise transport investment decisions. He was an early developer of AI techniques that could be applied to transport and was one of the first to predict the future growth in electric vehicles. After a distinguished career in senior leadership roles in economics and transport (among others, Director of the Bureau of Transport Economics 1972-75 and Deputy Secretary of the Commonwealth Department of Transport 1975-77), and a professorship intermezzo at the University of Tasmania 1978-82, John became the WA Director General of Transport (1982-1990) and represented the State government’s principal transport policy advisor until late 90s. Many strategic transport decisions are linked to his name, both in WA and at a national level. John returned to academic life at in 1991 joining UWA, eventually retiring in 2010 as Professor of Transport and Logistics and remaining an active Emeritus Professor and Senior Honorary Research Fellow, until he passed away on the 17th March 2019.

In 1990 at the Sydney Australian Transport Research Forum (ATRF), the John Taplin Award for the Best Paper was first proposed by Professor David Hensher, in recognition of John’s major contribution to the conference, for which he was one of the six founders and Chair of the first Forum in 1975.

The Bateman Memorial Lecture

This lecture is supported by an endowment established in 1966 by Mrs Mary Bateman in honour of her husband, the late Mervyn John Bateman. It is held according to demand. In recent decades this lecture series featured high profile speakers such as Gale Johnson (Chicago), John Taylor (Stanford), David Hendry (Oxford), and Shangjin Wei (Columbia).

About Mervyn John Bateman

A direct descendant of John Bateman who arrived in Western Australia on board the Medina in July 1830, Mr Bateman established an electrical and auto-electrical business, M.J. Bateman Pty Ltd, in 1912 and was Managing Director and major shareholder until his death in 1955.

View the full list of keynote speakers since 1982