Dr. Aruna Sathanapally
2006
John Monash Scholar
Masters
Human Rights, Law
Oxford University
United Kingdom
Law
Dr Aruna Sathanapally joined Grattan Institute as CEO in February 2024. She heads a team of leading policy thinkers, researching and advocating policy to improve the lives of Australians. A former NSW barrister and senior public servant, Aruna has worked on the design of public institutions, economic policy, and evidence-based public policy and regulation for close to twenty years. Aruna was previously the Executive Director, Economic and Revenue Analysis for the New South Wales Treasury where she led the division responsible for tax policy, forecasting, commonwealth- state financial relations and medium to long term economic modelling.
Aruna completed Bachelor of Civil Laws and a Master of Philosophy at Oxford University in 2008 and completed her DPhil in 2010. Her doctoral research concerned constitutional and institutional design to support responsibility sharing for human rights between democratic representatives and courts.
As a qualified lawyer, Aruna also spent her time at Oxford engaged in a range of pro bono legal work and leading a major submission to the Australian Human Rights Consultation in 2009. She worked as a consultant to the Amnesty International Secretariat in London, examining the adequacy of the international framework surrounding gross environmental harm.
In late 2010 she joined the London office of the international consultancy McKinsey and Company, specialising in sustainable development, public policy, and regulatory strategy. Aruna's doctoral research was published in 2012 by Oxford University Press 'Beyond Disagreement: Open Remedies in Human Rights Adjudication'.
She has previously served two terms as the Legal Advisor to the federal parliamentary Joint Committee of Human Rights, and the head of the Sydney office of the Human Rights Law Centre. Prior to being called to the Bar, Aruna was a government lawyer on Australia’s defence team in the international tobacco plain packaging litigation, and a consultant in regulatory strategy at McKinsey & Co in London.