Marian Baird AO is Professor of Gender and Employment Relations, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences of Australia (ASSA), and Co-Director of the Women, Work and Policy Research Group in the University of Sydney Business School. Marian is also an Expert Panel Member of the Fair Work Commission, appointed in March 2023. In 2016 Marian was awarded an AO (Officer of the Order of Australia) for outstanding services to improving the quality of women’s working lives and for contributions to tertiary education. In 2009 she became the first female professor in industrial relations at the University of Sydney.

Marian is an engaged researcher, working with many government departments, organisations, unions and not-for-profits to improve the position for women in the workforce and society. Her other awards include receiving the SUPRA Supervisor of the Year Award in 2022, the Best paper Award at AIRAANZ 2023, the Australian Labour and Employment Relations Association Award in 2021, the AIRAANZ Lifetime Service Award in 2020, and in 2019 and 2018, being named in Apolitical’s Top 100 Most Influential People in Gender Equality list. In 2014 she received the Edna Ryan Award for making positive change for women in the workforce, in 2013 she received the AFR/Westpac Women of Influence Award in Public Policy, and in 2015 and 2003 she won the University of Sydney’s Business Schools most engaged researcher awards.