DR JOHN WHITE
Executive Chairman
Dr John White is the Executive Chair of the Birdon Group and has a proud and significant career in the Australian Defence industry and is driven by a passion to ensure Australian Industry is at the core of delivering capability to Defence.
Dr John White has a 1st Class Honours Degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Adelaide and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Cambridge.
In 1989 as Managing Director of the marine engineering group AMECON (a Transfield subsidiary), John led the team that privatised the Williamstown Shipyard and won the contracts to build 2 FFG frigates and 10 ANZAC frigates for RAN.
Following a successful career John has been a Director and/or CEO of several publicly listed and private Australian companies, was formerly the Chair of the Federal Governments Uranium Industry Framework Council, a member of the Federal Government’s Defence Procurement Board and Director of the Defence SA Advisory Board.
In 2014, John co-authored the Winter-White Report on the Air Warfare Destroyer (AWD) program for the Federal Government. This review on John’s industry capability building experience, providing advice and insights for future naval programs and is still referred to today.