Profile

Dr Paul Porteous is Adjunct Associate Professor and Director of Leadership and International Development at the Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis, University of Canberra. His extensive leadership experience includes work as a senior diplomat and international lawyer, representative to numerous international organisations including the United Nations and International Court of Justice, and as a consultant in the United States, South East Asia, China, Middle East, Europe and Africa.

He has been both Visiting Faculty at Harvard Kennedy School and a Fellow at Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership where he received the ‘Dean’s Award for Excellence in Student Teaching’. From 2005 to 2009, Dr Porteous was Senior Adviser to the President of Madagascar, developing cutting edge leadership practice for nation building and the alleviation of poverty.

Dr Porteous is also Director of the Centre for Social Leadership, developing innovative programs across government, business and community sectors. He has extensive experience working in the Australian government including foreign affairs, regional development, transport and industrial relations. Paul was also Secretary of the National Transport Council and worked extensively with corporate CEOs and Ministers to pioneer leading edge responses to globalisation and develop Australia’s first National Logistics Strategy.

Dr Porteous is a leadership theorist and practitioner whose focus is not on heroic individuals but on collectively exploring innovative solutions to complex contemporary problems. He encourages us to stop waiting for heroes to save us from our problems, speak up when things are not working, develop a clear sense of purpose about values and direction and create a sense of possibility on critical issues.

ANZSOG programs

Dr Porteous teaches in the following ANZSOG courses:

Leadership for Change Agents
Executive Fellows Program
Advancing Leadership for the Northern Territory
Navigating Adaptive Leadership
Communicating and Engaging – New Socio-Political Dynamics (Singapore senior officials)
Generating Creative Outcomes with Communities

Selected publications

Porteous, P. (2013) Localism: from adaptive to social leadership. Policy Studies, (34): 523-540.
Evans, M., Porteous, P. & Reid, R. (2012) On collaborative governance. Commissioned report. Canberra: ANAO.
Porteous, P. (2011) Blinded By Vision: Lamenting Leadership. Public Administration Today, (Jul-Sep): 8-12.
Porteous, P. (2005) It’s not my problem mate! Leading in Uncertainty. Public Administration Today, (Mar-Jun): 31-37.