Gavan McDonell

Who is Gavan McDonell?

Gavan McDonell is an Australian civil engineer, economist and political sociologist in the fields of national infrastructure policy reform, international development and academic education for advanced sustainability studies.

McDonell has directed four public enquiries for different State and Federal governments, three as sole Commissioner under legislation similar to a Royal Commission.. From the late 1950s to the mid-1990s he was a consultant, adviser and senior official in about forty countries, working on national infrastructure and regional development.. From the late 1980s to the late 1990s, McDonell established in the University of New South Wales, Sydney, one of the first transdiciplinary programs in advanced social and political theory relating to environmental sustainability. This has produced leading contributions in research, policy and governance for science, technology and environment.. As a senior investment banker in the early 1990s, he wrote the first survey by a Westerner since World War II of the energy, transport and related environmental issues of the eight energy-rich republics of the former Soviet Union in the Caucasus and Central Asia..