Wendy Craik

Wendy Craik (born 1949) is an Australian scientist, public policy adviser and company director. She served as Deputy Chancellor of the University of South Australia.

Early life and education Gwenneth Jean Steele Craik was born in 1949 in Canberra, the second of four daughters of commerce graduate, Audrey Mavis (née Ion) and Duncan Robert Steele Craik, who later was Commonwealth Auditor-General. She was educated at Telopea Park High School, winning a Commonwealth scholarship in November 1965 for her final two years. She graduated from the Australian National University in 1973 with a BA (Hons) and the University Medal for Zoology. She then won a CSIRO scholarship with her thesis, "A further investigation of the homing behaviour of the intertidal cottid, Oligocottus maculosus Girard".

Career After her PhD, Craik returned to Canberra and joined the Department of the Environment and was sent to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) as part of her public service traineeship. She transferred to work in Townsville for the GBRMPA in 1978, where she initially did a lot of field work. During her time with the Authority she saw its staff grow from ten to 150 and in 1992 she became its executive officer. She returned to Canberra in 2002 to join ACIL Tasman (now ACIL Allen) as chief operating officer.

Craik joined the board of the Climate Change Authority in 2015 and served as chair from 2016 to 2020. She was appointed to the board of the Reserve Bank of Australia in 2018 for a five-year term.

Awards and honours Craik was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering in 1996. She was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2007 Australia Day Honours for "service to the natural resource sector of the economy, particularly in the areas of fisheries, marine ecology and management of water reform, and for contributions to policies affecting rural and regional Australia".

She was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Canberra in 2009.