ANU’s new chancellor is Gordon de Brouwer, a former Australian Public Service Commissioner

The chaotic Australian National University has appointed economist Gordon de Brouwer, a former public service chief, as its new chancellor to replace former foreign minister Julie Bishop.

Dr de Brouwer served as the Australian Public Service Commissioner from 2023 until January this year, and is a former secretary of the Department of the Environment and Energy and Associate Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

The economist has held senior roles at Treasury and the Reserve Bank – giving him the experience and skills to try to stem ANU’s financial losses and resolve its governance crisis.

The appointment was announced on Monday, after intervention from the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA).

ANU had signed a voluntary undertaking with TEQSA to undertake an “extensive and independent search process’’ to replace Ms Bishop, who resigned along with several other ANU council members in May after a year of scandals over cost-cutting and restructuring.

Peter Coaldrake, a former vice-chancellor of the Queensland University of Technology, headed the independent panel that appointed Dr de Brouwer.

The ANU will now start its search for a permanent vice-chancellor after cultural anthropologist Genevieve Bell stepped down in September last year.

ANU’s acting pro-chancellor Andrew Metcalfe said Dr de Brouwer brings “an exceptional combination of governance experience, national leadership and deep knowledge of ANU to the role’’.

“Dr de Brouwer has the experience, Judgement and integrity that ANU needs as we look to the future with confidence,’’ he said.

Dr de Brouwer, who will start work on Wednesday, said ANU has an important role to play at a time of profound social, economic, geopolitical and social change.

“ANU should continue to be a trusted national institution and a leading voice on the issues that will shape Australia’s future,’’ he said.

Last week, Foreign Minister Penny Wong terminated ANU’s long-running Joint Science College with Shandong University in China, on national security grounds.

In her three-page resignation letter, Ms Bishop described her last 18 months at the helm of ANU as “one of the most challenging periods of my professional career’’.

Taking aim at TEQSA, she said the universities regulator’s repeated interventions in governance matters had a “seriously destabilising and fracturing effect on the council and the broader university community’’.