WHO IS OLAF SCHUERMANN?

I have had a somewhat eclectic career of nearly 30 years in the Federal Government based in Canberra, including in agencies such as the Australian Federal Departments of the Treasury and Prime Minister & Cabinet, and the Australian Trade and Investment Commission.I was involved in:

a range of domestic and international economic and financial policy reforms, including in the context of domestic financial sector policy reform in the 1990s and international economic institutions such as the G20, IMF, ADB and EBRD;

a stint working in a ministerial office;

international government and business liaison, including as Senior Australian Treasury Representative, a diplomatic post based at the Australian High Commission in London; and 

foreign investment attraction, including the determination of Australia's foreign investment attraction priority areas while at Austrade, and its focus in attracting foreign investment to assist commercialise Australia's R&D expertise in advanced manufacturing, services and technology.

I both lived and travelled extensively overseas in most of these roles, particularly while leading work in relation to the various international financial institutions noted above and leading the financial services and foreign investment discussion during various Free Trade Agreement discussions.

Since departing the Australian Public Service, I have provided some economic/financial consultancy services, largely to foreign companies wishing to invest in Australia.  However, this is not my passion.  I have combined my extensive experience of the practical operation of Government, and enthusiasm for travelling and presenting to tourists what Canberra has to offer, in undertaking some tour guiding in Canberra over the past few years.The city is far more than the politicians that occasionally come to Canberra to go to Parliament. 

Based on my own extensive travel experiences I recognise what visitors to a new area want to see and know.My practical knowledge of the operations of Government in Australia, combined with my extensive knowledge of the history of Canberra, forms the backbone of my tour guiding work.  I am very familiar with Canberra’s history, from early settlement in the 1920s, its (eventual) selection as the new capital of a federated Australia, to the development of the cosmopolitan city it has now become, warts and all.Having being born and grown up in Canberra, as well as largely working here for 30 years, all brings with it considerable anecdotes that I can reveal to visitors to the city.  You will have plenty of laughs during my tour!

Aside from occasionally leading tours to Europe for travelling Australians, I am a casual tour guide for a small, Canberra-based, company called ‘Canberra Guided Tours’, which largely provides intensive, small-group, full-day tours travelling to key parts of the city, as well as wine tours of the region.  Some feedback provided by guests on my tours include that I am very passionate about Canberra and that I have many interesting things to say (indeed, a bit of a ‘chatterbox’).

On other major interests, I have played badminton for over thirty years, manage the largest badminton club in Canberra and I am President of the ACT Badminton Association.  I am also fluent in German.