Mathias Cormann

Mathias Cormann is the sixth secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD). Before his appointment to the OECD, he served as the Australian minister for finance, the leader of the government in the Australian senate, and as a federal senator representing the state of Western Australia. In these roles, he has been a strong advocate for the positive power of open markets and free trade, and of the importance of a rules-based international trading system.

Between 1997 and 2003, he was chief of staff and a senior adviser to various state and federal ministers and the premier of Western Australia. Between 2003 and 2007, he worked for major Western Australian health insurer HBF in a range of senior management roles.

Having been born in the German-speaking part of Belgium, he migrated to Australia in 1996. Previously, he graduated in law from the Flemish Catholic University of Louvain (Leuven), following studies at the University of Namur and, as part of the Erasmus student exchange programme, at the University of East Anglia.