Board of Directors

Chris Barrett BA, BEc, MA, MPP

First appointed 19 December 2023. Current appointment expires 18 December 2026.

Mr Barrett is Secretary of the Department of Treasury and Finance and has almost 30 years of experience in public policy.  He leads the Department in its role of providing economic, financial and resource management policy advice to the Victorian Government.

Mr Barrett commenced as DTF Secretary in December 2023, having joined DTF as Deputy Secretary of the Economic Division in January 2021. Mr Barrett was responsible for the provision of high-level economic and policy advice to Government on productivity, taxation and regulation, along with social, environmental and economic development issues.

Before this, Mr Barrett was the CEO of Invest Victoria, and led both the Victorian Government’s approach to investment attraction and the Economic Recovery Mission in response to coronavirus (COVID-19).

Mr Barrett’s career includes over two decades in public service in Melbourne, Canberra and internationally, including as Deputy Secretary, Policy and Cabinet in the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet.

In 2011, Mr Barrett was appointed Australian Ambassador to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, where he led Australia’s engagement with the OECD and contributed to global best-practice public policy. Following on from his role with the OECD, Mr Barrett spent four years with the European Climate Foundation in Berlin, where, as Executive Director, Finance and Economics, he led an international philanthropic strategy on the economic and financial implications and opportunities of the low-carbon transition. 

Mr Barrett is a director of Infrastructure Victoria and Victorian Funds Management Corporation, and a member of the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute Advisory Board.