The Hon John Sharp

Chair, EADS Australia & the Air Safety Foundation of Australia and Deputy Chairman of Regional Express Airlines

John Sharp is originally from a farming and business background.

His political career commenced in 1980 at the age of 25 when he was elected to the Young Shire Council. Also in 1980 he was elected to the South West Slopes County Council and to the Southern Tablelands County Council. In 1981 he became Chairman of the Young Neighbourhood Council, the Young Tidy Towns Committee, and Deputy Chairman of the Livestock and Grain Producers District Council.

In 1984 he was elected to the Federal Parliament in the House of Representatives seat of Gilmore. Following a redistribution in 1993 he represented the seat of Hume. He served 14 years in the Federal Parliament. Most of that time, from 1987 to the end of 1997 he served on the Federal Coalition’s front bench as Shadow Minister and later as Minister for Transport and Regional Development and was a member of Shadow Cabinet or the Cabinet from 1989 to 1997.

During his parliamentary career he became well known and respected for his role in promoting aviation safety and was responsible for numerous reforms within that sector including a complete rewrite of the aviation regulations to simplify them. He was also responsible for the reform of Australia’s railways.

Following his retirement from Parliament in 1998 John Sharp established his own transport consulting company, Thenford Consulting.

From 1999 to 2001 he was a director of ADI-Fox.

John Sharp is currently a Director of Australian Aerospace an EADS company which owns Airbus and Eurocopter.

In 2005 he was appointed a director of Skytraders, an air freight and aerial work company.

In 2001 he was appointed Chairman of the Aviation Safety Foundation of Australia.

He was appointed as Chairman of Power and Data Corporation in 2003.

In 2005 he was appointed Deputy Chairman of Regional Express, Rex.

He was appointed Chairman of Pel Air in 2006.

In 2007, he joined the Advisory Council of Parsons Brinckerhoff – a design and engineering Company.

John Sharp is also involved in a number of voluntary organisations:

• Trustee and Board Member of John McKeown House
• Honorary Federal Treasurer, National Party of Australia
• Chairman of Winifred West Schools Foundation, (Gib Gate Frensham and Sturt)
• Member of the University of Wollongong Vice-Chancellor’s Advisory Board
• Co-Chair of the Cancer Council of NSW, Southern Highlands Branch

Between 2002 and 2003 he conducted a Review of the Australian Shipping Industry on behalf of the Australian Ship Owners Association.

He is also a member of the Council of Advisors, an international think tank based in New York.

John Sharp lives on his farm in the NSW Southern Highlands with his wife and three children.

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