Murray Baird, principal at Moores Legal and a speaker at the 6th Australasian Better Boards Conference, has recently been appointed to the position of Assistant Commissioner (General Counsel) at the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission (ACNC).

His new task will be to lead the legal, accountancy, policy, education, compliance and assurances services of the ACNC and will begin his duties in mid May.

Also appointed alongside Murray is David Locke who will operate as Assistant Commissioner, Charity Services. For the past six months David has been working as a special advisor to the ACNC Taskforce.

The appointment of Murray to the ACNC comes at a critical phase of the formation of the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission as a regulator for the non-profit sector.

From July 1 2012, the ACNC will initially be responsible for:

• determining charitable and public benevolent institution status for all Commonwealth purposes.
• providing education and support to the sector.
• beginning the implementation of a ‘report-once use-often’ general reporting framework for charities.

Murray has extensive experience in the legal aspects of the non-profit sector, gained during his 35 years of leadership at Moores Legal. This, combined with his initial experiences as Assistant Commissioner at the ACNC will provide delegates at the Better Boards Conference with excellent insights on the current and future legalities and realities of the non-profit sector.

Murray will share his insights alongside many other experienced and informative speakers at the Better Boards Conference in Melbourne this July, including other key members of the government’s various Non-Profit reform councils and task forces.

See a full list of the speakers at the Better Boards Conference, Australasia’s premier governance and leadership event for board members and chief executive officers of non-profit organisations.