Megan Clark

Megan Elizabeth Clark AC, FTSE is an Australian geologist. She is a non-executive director (since 2014) of Rio Tinto Limited and from 2009 to 2014 was Chief Executive of the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). The CSIRO is Australia’s applied research organisation and Megan Clark was its first female chief executive.

Under her leadership CSIRO was credited for a number of new ventures.

As a Rio Tinto board member, she began serving as chairman of the Sustainability Committee in May 2016, and has become a member of the Remuneration Committee with effect from 1 May 2016.

Clark was awarded a BSc(Hons) in Economic Geology at the University of Western Australia in 1981, and a Doctorate in Economic Geology at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario in 1987. She began her career as a mine geologist and subsequently worked in mineral exploration, mine geology, R&D management, venture capital and technical strategy areas with Western Mining Corporation. She was then a director of N M Rothschild & Sons (Australia) and was Vice-president Technology and subsequently Vice-president Health, Safety, Environment, Community and Sustainability with BHP Billiton from 2003 to 2008.

Clark was a member of the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council, as well as the Prime Minister’s Taskforce on Manufacturing. She is also a Commissioner on the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

In the 2014 Queen's Birthday Honours List, Clark was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), for "eminent service to scientific research and development through fostering innovation, to science administration through strategic leadership roles, and to the development of public policy for technological sciences".