Ian Smith

Ian Richard Smith is an Australian political lobbyist. He is a founder of the firm Bespoke Approach, and is considered by The Power Index to be one of Australia's most influential political lobbyists.

Career Smith's first job in Australia was as a reporter for the Daily Advertiser in Wagga Wagga. He later transferred to The Advertiser in Adelaide, for which he continued to write occasional opinion editorial pieces and provided political commentary.

He founded the firm Bespoke Approach in 2008, and solicited former federal politicians Alexander Downer and Nick Bolkus to become partners. The firm's fourth partner is Andrew Butcher, a former spokesperson for Rupert Murdoch. Smith modelled the business on the way that the Kissingers, Albrights and Scowcrofts lobbied in the US. They have two children. of which he was a member in 2015. Smith's other advisory group and board memberships include The Big Issue, the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes, the Northern Territory Government's Economic Development Panel, and Developing East Arnhem Land Ltd. The latter company was established by the Northern Territory Government, the Commonwealth government and mining company Rio Tinto to drive economic development in East Arnhem Land.

In November 2015, Smith was scheduled to appear on the ABC TV talk show, Q&A. (brother of football player Awer Mabil ), an organisation which helps refugees by "providing them with simple things that are otherwise inaccessible" to boost their resilience and help them to develop new skills.