Ms Barbara Crook

Ms Crook’s energy and experience for the past decade has been in the legal and professional services industry, overseeing internal change and the merger of two significant law firms.

In 1996, she was appointed to the role of General Manager for the precursor firm of Arthur Robinson & Hedderwicks.  This appointment coincided with her completion of an executive MBA from the AGSM, University of NSW.

She was most recently the CEO of Hunt and Hunt following her Executive General Manager role at Allens, Arthur Robinson.

With initial plans of becoming a teacher, Barbara obtained a Diploma and a Bachelor of Education, took postgraduate studies in Computer Science, and taught arts and graphics for seven years.

This background paved the way for her entry into the consumer goods industry as a Commercial Manager with Uncle Ben’s, which in turn led to her undertaking a series of supervisory roles in manufacturing and to a new career in production and plant management.  From there, she joined Country Road as a Production Manager, acquiring supervisory, contract and accessory sourcing experience.  She was recruited by ADI as General Manager Operations, for the clothing division.

Later she was recruited by the Smorgon Group as General Manager of the ARC Division Operations, with ultimate responsibility for supplying most of Australia’s large infrastructure projects.