Dr Nicholas Gruen, Lateral Economics

Nicholas Gruen is trained in History, Statistics, Law and Economics.

 He is CEO and founder of Lateral Economics and Peach Financial. He is Chairman of the Australian Centre for Social Innovation (TACSI), Online Opinion and Kaggle, a start-up global portal for data competitions which is doing remarkable things. He is Patron of the Australian Digital Alliance.    

He is a regular newspaper columnist, most recently for the Australian Financial Review and has had his work featured in Best Australian Essays and Best Political Writing.  He has published in international academic journals on a variety of topics and is a prolific blogger at a group blog Club Troppo. 

Dr Gruen was a member of the Cutler Review into Australian Innovation leading the Review’s deliberations on the importance improving information flows, innovation in government and improving the design of tax concessions for R&D and in 2010 he was the Commonwealth Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) Thinker in Residence.
Lateral Economics has been involved with the Commonwealth, Victorian, South Australian, NSW and Western Australian governments to improve innovation in government and with the World Bank on better regulation.  

In 2009 Dr Gruen chaired the Federal Government’s Government 2.0 Taskforce producing a report which garnered high praise from leading international figures. The Federal Government has essentially accepted its recommendations. Since the Taskforce Dr Gruen has spoken on Government 2.0 in every Australian State and internationally. He is recognised as a strong public advocate for economic reform, innovation and open government all in the context of grasping the extraordinary opportunities which burgeon online.