Professor Sandra Harding
Vice-Chancellor and President, James Cook University
BSc (Hons) ANU, M.Pub.Admin UQ, PhD NCSU, FAICD, FAIM
Professor Sandra Harding is Vice-Chancellor and President of James Cook University Australia. In this role, she is responsible for ensuring clear and effective leadership and management of the University across all operating sites, including campuses in Townsville, Cairns and Singapore.
Professor Harding is an economic sociologist with a keen scholarly interest in markets and how they work, and organisation survey methodology. She also has a keen professional interest in education policy and management. She has authored and co-authored a wide range of publications, conference papers and press articles in her areas of interest.
Professor Harding has extensive academic and academic leadership experience in Australian university senior executive positions. In addition, she has undertaken a wide variety of senior university-aligned roles as well as memberships/directorships of a variety of local, national and international Boards and Councils.
Current roles include:
- Commissioner on the Queensland Government Independent Commission of Audit
- Director of Regional Australia Institute
- Deputy Chair of Universities Australia
- Board member of Skills Queensland
- Council Member of the Australian Institute for Marine Sciences
- Director of North Queensland Cowboys NRL club
- Australia’s representative on the University Grants Commission for the University of the South Pacific
Professor Harding’s previous external roles include:
- Director of Townsville Enterprise Limited and of Advance Cairns (regional economic development bodies)
- Member of the Queensland Premier’s Smart State Council
- Chairman of Brisbane Marketing Pty Ltd
- Director of the Australian Institute for Commercialisation
- Director of the Global Foundation for Management Education Ltd (Montreal)
- Chair of the Australian Statistics Advisory Council
- Member of the HIH Assessment Review Panel
- Chair, Innovative Research Universities (an alliance of seven Australian universities: Charles Darwin, Griffith, La Trobe, Flinders, Murdoch, Newcastle and James Cook universities)
- Inaugural President of the Australian Business Deans Council
- Vice-President of the Australian Universities Community Engagement Alliance
She was a delegate to Australia’s 2020 Summit in 2008 as a member of the Productivity stream, attends the Australian Davos Connection Leadership Retreat and has participated in the Australian American (West Coast) Leadership Dialogue at the University of California, San Diego and Stanford University.
She was recognised as North Carolina State University’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences Distinguished Alumna for 2003 and, in 2010, received an honorary doctorate for services to education from Japan’s Josai International University.
Professor Harding is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management.
