Alan Jackson (businessman)
Alan Robert Jackson  (30 March 1936 – 4 August 2018) was an Australian businessman who was the Director of BTR Nylex between 1977 and 1996 and CEO of BTR plc between 1991 and 1996 as well as Chairman of the Australian Trade Commission (Austrade) between 1995 and 2001. He was also a board member of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) between 1991 and 2001. Personal life and education 
As a child, Jackson attended Drouin High School, leaving in 1952, when he was 15 to train to became a pastry cook but became an office boy or clerk in Melbourne. At 19, he took accountancy studies by correspondence at Hemmingway Robertson Institute. He did not complete his High School Certificate (HSC), but did a brief management course at Harvard's Business School in 1977. On 20 January 1962, Jackson married Esme Adelia Jackson (née Giles). The couple had four daughters together. Career

Accounting 
Jackson began his career as a pastry chef but once he was old enough, he became an office boy at Kelly and Lewis Pty Ltd in 1955, but soon moved to Mather and Platt, in which he became a clerk. Mather and Platt was the Australian arm of a British pump manufacturer. After his studies, he progressed to become an accountant then, chief accountant and later, finance secretary and finance director. He became managing director of the company during the 1970s, until 1977. Period at BTR and subsidiaries 
Jackson became managing director of the conveyor belt manufacturer Hopkins Odlum between 1977 and 1990 (which would become the precursor to BTR Nylex when the name of Hopkins was changed in 1986). Jackson became managing director and chief executive officer of the BTR plc conglomerate in December 1990. In 1991, Jackson completed the acquisition of ACI of Australia, one of the largest conglomerates in Australia and the largest hostile takeover in Australian history at that point in time. Later career 
In August 1995, Jackson was asked by the Australian Minister for Trade, Bob McMullan, to be a member of the board of the Australian Trade Commission. He was invited by the board and by Tim Fischer in late 1995, to Chair the Commission. He served in this role for six years until July 2001. Jackson was an early supporter of developing economic connections with Mainland China after opening to western trade in the 1980s. He furthered economic ties with Japan and South East Asian countries as well as reinforcing economic connections with the United Kingdom and the United States on behalf of Australia. He also became a Non-Executive Director of Kerry Stokes's Seven Network after moving from BTR in 1995, a position he held until April 2001. Honours, awards and fellowships

Honours 
 1991: Officer of the Order of Australia (AO), 26 January 1991, "For service to business, to industry and to government"
 2001: Centenary Medal, 1 January 2001, "For outstanding service to Australia's international trade"

Fellowships 
 1970s: Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (FCA)
 1970s: Fellow of the Australian Society of Accountants (AASA), (FCPA)
 1970s: Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management (FAIM)
 1990s: Companion of the British Institute of Management (CBIM)

References 

1936 births
2018 deaths
Deaths from dementia
Australian accountants
20th-century industrialists
21st-century industrialists
Businesspeople from Melbourne
Australian business executives
Australian corporate directors
20th-century Australian businesspeople
21st-century Australian businesspeople
Officers of the Order of Australia