ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb on how to build a meaningful career

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is an independent statutory authority of the Commonwealth that promotes competition and fair trading in Australia. It is the country's peak consumer protection agency, enforcing the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 to protect consumers, regulate national infrastructure, and ensure businesses act fairly.  

So what does the day in the life of the Chair of the ACCC look like? Speaking to students at the 2025 Echo conference, held at UNSW Sydney, ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb discussed the pivotal moments that shaped her career in law and policy, the mindset she believes young leaders should develop, and what an average day looks like inside Australia’s competition and consumer regulator.  

Photo gallery: ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb presents at the 2025 Echo conference at UNSW Sydney

An interesting point she made was that innovation depends largely on trust. “We [ACCC] are aware that across the community, and particularly for young people, there is declining trust in business and declining trust in institutions of government,” she said. “We need consumers to have enough confidence and trust that they want to try new products, so that we can be a country of innovation.” 

Learning to see the world’s hidden currents 

Ms Cass-Gottlieb began her keynote by urging students to recognise the unseen forces shaping economics, politics and society. To illustrate this, she spoke about a young sailor who prepared for a voyage by memorising the stars, only to find the ship drifting off course. The sailor finally realised that invisible currents beneath the surface were determining their direction. In this way, economics teaches people to recognise the “currents” underpinning society. 

“When you open your mind and are curious and can learn all the ways to analyse what’s hidden, you can see what is really shaping the world we live in,” she said. 

Her own realisation came at the age of 15, while standing at a Bondi Junction bus stop in 1975, moments after hearing that the Whitlam government had been dismissed. This political upheaval sparked an awareness of deeper forces at work. “I realised if I wanted to understand the world I was living in, I had to understand economics. Economics allows you to engage in an informed way in those critical debates about what is going to keep Australia strong and developing positively in this world of huge change,” she said.  

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Ms Cass-Gottlieb, who was previously a Board Member at the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), started he career in Law after graduating from the University of Sydney with a Law degree. “Through my studies, I learned that law provides structure, that economics illuminates the rules of motion within the structure and social policy gives us our purpose.” 

For Ms Cass-Gottlieb, economics soon became the analytical foundation of her career. It guided her studies with a Fulbright scholarship at UC Berkeley, and got her involved in competition law, before joining the helm of the ACCC in 2022. “Economics gives you the ability to not only see what is happening, but to create waves and ripples and echoes in the world in which you live,” she said. “All STEM [Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] subjects, including economics, give important skills for analysing and understanding the way our world works.” 

Curiosity, preparation and bravery: the habits of leadership 

Throughout her address, Ms Cass-Gottlieb repeatedly returned to three key leadership principles young professionals should adopt early: curiosity, preparation, and courage. First comes curiosity. “Be curious. Awareness begins with curiosity. Ask questions even or especially about things that might seem obvious,” she said.  

Her second principle – preparation – is what equips young professionals to contribute meaningfully when opportunities arise. “Depth of understanding and skill builds confidence. Preparation lets you walk into the room to contribute and to add value to the discussion,” she said. 

But it was her third principle, bravery, that resonated most with students. Reflecting on years of stepping into male-dominated rooms, she described the rule she set for herself. “I hold myself to account that every time I go into a meeting, I will say at least one point that I’ve prepared and is of value,” she said. 

She emphasised that bravery is not about dominating a conversation but choosing one’s moment. “You choose your time. You choose your point. You’re prepared,” she said. 

For young people who doubt their capacity to speak up or whose backgrounds may differ from those around them, Ms Cass-Gottlieb reinforced the unique value they bring. “Know that you can bring a unique perspective that is necessary to raise a critical point which might otherwise be missed. Diversity doesn’t just make systems fairer, it makes them better. Different experiences, different minds, different voices, lead to better questions, more robust debate and more creative solutions and better outcomes in the law and in markets themselves,” she said. 

Inside the ACCC: what leadership looks like day-to-day 

Students were eager to understand what Ms Cass-Gottlieb’s daily work actually entails on a day-to-day basis. For example, she discussed how the ACCC had filed significant litigation against Microsoft, prompting a full day of public engagement. “I did a media conference. I was interviewed by television and radio media. We were engaging with social media,” she said. 

Her responsibilities span both external communication and internal leadership. “I chair the Scams and Digital Markets Committee,” she said. “We are looking at how to fight, prevent and disrupt scams, and also to understand the incredible significance of digital platforms in our lives.” 

In addition to managing media and other engagements, much of her day also involves analysis, team collaboration, and policy design. “I engage with teams and receive messages from people who are working on particular areas, and I also engage with the business community and legal community to talk about our merger reform,” she said. 

Despite the intensity of her work, outreach remains a constant priority. “I do try to come out and meet with people like this if I can, every week, because I want the community to know the work we’re doing,” she said. 

Ms Cass-Gottlieb also offered personal advice rarely spoken so frankly by senior figures. Young people, she said, should not fear pursuing a rich, multidimensional life alongside ambitious careers. “I say chaos is my middle name,” she said, encouraging students to embrace the idea of a full life. “You can have it all. It’s going to be crazy, it’s going to be chaotic, but you can do it all.” 

Her message challenged the lingering belief that personal and professional aspirations must be traded off. Instead, Ms Cass-Gottlieb framed leadership as compatible with – and enriched by – a full personal life. 

Shaping their own waves of change 

Ms Cass-Gottlieb closed by urging students not only to understand the forces shaping society but also to influence them. “Today, we face a time of enormous changes… digital transformation, decarbonisation, market concentration and geopolitical instability,” she said.  

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Speaking to the shift to decarbonisation specifically, she said: “I am personally convinced by the [climate] science and that we do need to have social policy to protect our environment and to seek to move us in a transition towards carbon neutrality.”  

In closing, she urged students to consider how they might make a positive impact in the real world. “Our challenge is not just to respond to the ripples and waves that big changes may make. It’s to shape our own ripples and waves of change together to achieve what we want to achieve. “I hope that you are curious enough to see these currents and brave enough to sail them and determined enough to make waves,” she said.