Margaret Harding is an experienced not-for-profit Board Director (research focused Pty Ltd companies, SMEs) and higher education executive (ANU Deputy Vice-Chancellor; UNSW Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean). She has extensive experience in the oversight of large, complex research portfolios of collaborative projects between universities, government, industry and business, and developing research strategies to maximise performance and impact and deliver organisational goals. She holds BSc (Hons), PhD and DSc degrees in chemistry from the University of Sydney.

Current appointments: ARC Board member; Chair of the Australian National Imaging Facility (NCRIS); non-Executive Director at SmartSat CRC Ltd; Professor Emeritus at the Australian National University; Managing Director Margaret Harding Consulting.

Past Directorships and Governing Board memberships: Chair, Research Advisory Committee, James Martin Public Policy Institute; Board Chair of NSW Circular (NSW Government Innovation network); Director on the Boards of ANU Enterprise Pty Ltd, Australian Scientific Instruments Pty Ltd, Neuroscience Research Australia Pty Ltd, Bionic Vision Australia Pty Ltd (Alternate Director); National Computational Infrastructure (NCRIS); the National Centre for Indigenous Genomics; Australia Indonesia Centre; Australian Giant Magellan Telescope Committee; Australian Research Council (ARC) Advisory Council.

Past Higher Education Executive Roles: ANU Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research & Innovation); UNSW Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) and Dean of Graduate Research; USyd Associate Dean (Postgraduate) and Deputy Head School of Chemistry.