Allan Asher  Allan James Asher is an Australian lawyer, consumer advocate and campaigner. Asher was born in Sydney on 16 February 1951, one of eight children. He grew up in the western suburbs of Sydney at Eastern Creek. He attended Eastern Creek Primary School and later Rooty Hill High School. After completing high school Asher attended Sydney Technical College (now Ultimo TAFE) to re-do his Higher School Certificate. He studied economics and accounting at the University of New South Wales, and then law at Sydney University. Asher was married to Dr Joan Lennon until her death in London in 2006. He married Lois Eagle in Sydney in September 2010. In 2012 Asher took up a post as a Visitor at the Australian National University, Canberra. Asher's first job was as an audit clerk at an accounting firm. From 1974 to 1984, Asher was a Senior Executive with the Australian Consumers Association (ACA). In 1984, Asher became the Director of Corporate Affairs with the Overseas Telecommunications Commission (OTC). From 1988 to 2000 Asher was the Deputy Chairperson at the ACCC. This included a period at the Trade Practices Commission from 1988–2005. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is Australia's national competition and consumer regulatory agency. At the end of his term as Deputy chairman (November 2000), the Commission was engaged in around 53 civil and criminal prosecutions in the Federal Court of Australia. In addition around 30 enforceable undertakings or administrative settlements were under negotiation. Approximately half of the enforcement matters concerned competition law enforcement. Asher was appointed as the Consumer Protection Commissioner in 1995 with special responsibility for consumer matters. This role involved extensive liaison with consumer interests both within Australia and internationally including representing Australia at the OECD, UNESCO and APEC. He was responsible for issues connected to e-commerce and global information technology matters. While at the ACCC Asher played a significant role in the development of the OECD Guidelines for e-commerce and chaired the Policy Committee for 4 years. He represented the OECD at the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)  Asher worked for Consumers International, which is a global NGO made up of 240 groups from 110 countries. where he was the Global Policy and Campaigns Director from 2000 – 2001. Consumer's International is a global federation of 243 consumer organisations from 111 countries which promote a fairer society by advocacy of well-functioning market economies, and a rules-based global trading system. Asher was responsible for development advocacy and implementation of policies to promote the welfare of consumers at the global level.