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Harrison Young - Prudence & Ambition (CANCELLED)

Name: Harrison Young - Prudence & Ambition
Start: 2026-06-23T18:00:00+10:00
End: 2026-06-23T18:00:00+10:00
Location: Upstairs at Gleebooks

About

6pm for 6.30pm Tuesday 23 June

Prudence & Ambition by Harrison Young, launched by David Gonski

Banks are a way of organising society. Their liabilities are money. They make wealth portable. They facilitate commerce. They do the work of markets where markets don't exist. No one much likes banks. We resent their power and wealth. They hold our mortgages and issue our credit cards. They know things about us. They can veto our plans. But we need them. Prosperity requires credit. The economy struggles if its banks are overcautious. When a bank fails, the public suffers.

But do we know enough about how they work?

In Prudence and Ambition, former director of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Harrison Young looks back on his long career to explain how banks work and why the Western bank governance model is no longer fit for purpose.

Taking us through key moments of a career that spans over four decades and twenty countries, Harrison explores different banking systems, their failures and successes, and offers his vision of the change needed to build banks for the future.

American born and Harvard educated Harrison Young has had a remarkable investment banking career spanning more than thirty years. Harrison’s career has seen him conduct business in twenty countries and he has advised twelve foreign governments. He was the CEO of China’s first international investment bank, has been a Director of Bank of England, MD of Morgan Stanley Asia, Chairman of Morgan Stanley Australia and since 2007, a Director of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Other than writing great fiction, Harrison collects Australian artwork & paintings, which are mostly representation rather than abstract, but has a wonderful collection. He is renowned for giving brilliant, exciting and animated dinner parties & barracks for Geelong. He also takes a great interest in how banking and financial systems work, globally.

David is Chairman of the University of New South Wales Foundation Limited, Emeritus Chancellor and Emeritus Professor of the University of New South Wales. He is Chairman of the Sydney Airport Corporation board and Levande Living. He was previously Chairman of the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd, Chair of the Review to Achieve Educational Excellence in Australian Schools for the Commonwealth Government of Australia. He was also a Member of the Takeovers Panel, the ASIC External Advisory Panel and Director of Singapore Airlines Limited, the Westfield Group and Singapore Telecommunications Limited, Chairman of Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd, The Australian Securities Exchange Ltd, the Sydney Theatre Company, the Guardians of the Future Fund, the Australia Council for the Arts, the Board of Trustees of Sydney Grammar School and Investec Bank (Australia) Ltd.