Nicholas Jans

Nick Jans’s career began conventionally enough, with the Royal Military College (Duntroon) followed by regimental service in Vietnam. But after that it was distinctively unconventional, as he rotated between internal consultancy, research and policy roles, all guided by the longstanding principle that ‘There is nothing as practical as a good theory’. After 25 years of regular service, he then spent nearly as long in the Reserves. In the meantime, after a few years at the University of Canberra, he moved to full-time consultancy. He was able to put his ideas on leadership into practice in his adopted hometown of Marysville after the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, for which he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia.