Staff of the Centre
The Centre has a core group of in-house Research Staff, and Support Staff. In addition, the Centre draws on a number of Research Associates who work with the Centre on an ad hoc basis on specific research topics. In undertaking commissioned research and consultancies, and in providing Economic Briefings to Corporate Members, the Centre also draws on the teaching staff of the economics and related disciplines of the two Universities on a contracted basis.
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Associate Professor Michael O'Neil, Executive Director
Michael O'Neil is currently the Executive Director of the South Australian Centre for Economic Studies of the Adelaide and Flinders Universities. He holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration, a Masters Degree in Social Administration, and qualifications in Economics from Adelaide University and UCSD, and an Arts Degree majoring in history and regional economic geography. He has extensive experience in both public and private sectors including the development and evaluation of public policy, program analysis, development and implementation of strategic advice to government and corporate strategy. He has supervised and contributed to strategic reviews and evaluation of large-scale Commonwealth and State public policy and programs including, inter alia, in education, labour market programs and skills training, regional development, science and information technology, occupational health and safety and community development programs. Working collaboratively with a team of experienced economists and social researchers at the Centre, he has contributed to major studies on a number of industries including mining, defence, electronics and IT, agriculture including the impact of the drought, water security and resource management, education, human services and health and the gambling industry. Michael has conducted high-level strategic reviews, research and evaluation studies into agricultural assistance programs, and the labour market and is at the forefront of economic research and principles in regional development, regional economic geography and industry development. He has conducted numerous studies on national, state and local regional development initiatives and structures including for the Commonwealth, for Regional Development Australia organisation, Regional Council Organisations, Local Government and agencies of government.
Working with other senior research economists at the Centre he has undertaken studies on regional and economic development, interstate business cost comparisons, competitiveness of the national and regional economies, studies into social inclusion, the impact of demographic change on economic growth, the development of economic and social indicators to monitor the quality of life, including the preparation of economic, social and environmental profiles for regions. Michael has also led and participated in some twenty five major studies into the gambling industry and is currently a member of an expert panel for research and evaluation into gambling in Canada and a major research project on the social impact of gambling in Massachusetts (USA). He has been invited to deliver keynote presentations on methodologies in gambling research in Canada and the United Kingdom and delivered major research papers to a number of international conferences on gambling. In the position of Executive Director, Michael is responsible for oversight of the Centre’s operations and performance within a University environment, including the bi-annual Corporate Economic Briefing Report, seminars on economic and social issues and Economic Issues Paper series. Contact details |
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Mr Steve Whetton, Deputy Director
From 2003 to 2006, Steve worked as an economist for the UK government, first at the Health and Safety Executive (the statutory body in the UK which regulates the risks to workers and the public from the workplace) then with the Department of Trade and Industry. As well as heading up the Evaluation Branch within the HSE’s economics team Steve took a leading role in transforming HSE’s business planning process to support its move to programme based working, and managed a £2 million research project. At the Department for Trade and Industry Steve was economist in the Office of Science and Innovation with responsibility for R&D and Technology policy, acting as the principal source of economic expertise on R&D and technology-based innovation, maintaining and extending the evidence base and disseminating knowledge in co-operation with policy colleagues and HM Treasury. |
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Mr Anthony Kosturjak, Senior Research Economist
In addition to being the regular author of a macroeconomic chapter in the Centre’s Briefing Report, Anthony has contributed to and edited various issues of the Centre’s Economic Issues series. In his Honours dissertation he considered the economic impacts on consumers and the music industry of permitting parallel imports of sound recordings. |
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Mr Mark Trevithick, Research Economist
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Ms Suraya Abdul Halim, Research Economist
Prior to joining the Centre Suraya was employed in the University of Adelaide as a Research Assistant and Tutor. Her duties included researching, collecting and organizing data for econometric modelling analyses related to the trade and development of APEC nations. Subjects taught include Business and Economic Statistics, Macroeconomics and Microeconomics. |
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Ms Lauren Kaye, Research Economist
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Mrs Davina Dolman, Executive Assistant
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If you are interested in working at the Centre see Employment Opportunities.
