Chief economist Craig James has a knack for making economics user friendly.
Current work
He’s currently chief economist at CommSec, interpreting ‘big picture’ economic and financial trends for customers, clients and staff.
CommSec is known for innovative, ‘user friendly’ reports including State of the States, the CommSec iPhone Index and CommSec Home Size report. CommSec economic reports are a bit different in that they devise tools such as the 'Mums and Dads' share index and the iPod index, and undertake research on the weather and demographic changes to show how they affect the economy.
As well as providing presentations to staff and clients and commentaries on financial and economic trends, Craig appears regularly in the electronic and print media. Craig currently does around two to three regular TV crosses a day, ad hoc radio and newspaper interviews and writes regular commentaries as well as presenting to staff, clients and external organisations.
Previous experience
Education: Craig has worked in banking, finance and journalism for around 38 years and holds both Bachelor and Master degrees in Commerce (Economics).
Professor: He was appointed Adjunct Professor at Perth's Curtin Business School in 2012.
Personal: Outside work, Craig's main interests are Masters athletics and trying to keep up with his three '20-something' children.
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Craig James
Chief economist Craig James has a knack for making economics user friendly. He’s currently chief economist at CommSec, interpreting ‘big picture’ economic and financial trends for customers, clients and staff. CommSec is known for innovative, ‘user friendly’ reports including State of the States, the CommSec iPhone Index and CommSec Home Size report. CommSec economic reports are a bit different in that they devise tools such as the 'Mums and Dads' share index and the iPod index, and undertake research on the weather and demographic changes to show how they affect the economy.Craig James
On leaving school Craig James joined the (then) Rural Bank, whilst undertaking university studies. He received his Bachelor of Commerce (Economics) at University of NSW in 1984 and then a Master of Commerce (Economics) at the same university in 1988. He remained at the Rural Bank, which became the State Bank over time and then Colonial, working in branches, Corporate, Planning and Economic Research. He became chief economist of Colonial Group in September 1997, before becoming chief economist at CommSec in August 2000 with the Commonwealth takeover of Colonial.Couldn't recommend highly enough. Craig was incredibly obliging, extremely informative and tailored the presentation specifically to our group. We received extremely positive feedback and wo ... keep reading ING Australia
Craig’s presentation was extremely relevant and pitched exactly right at our audience. He presented the subject matter in an easy to understand format and provided great insight to assist in future decision making.
Thank you so much for making the time to travel to Brisbane and present at our ‘Building the Resilient Company’ seminar on Wednesday. I have just finished analysing the seminar evaluations and am pleased to say that you were our most highly rated speaker. People’s comments certainly reflected that you pitched the presentation at the right level for the audience and they found that you had “good practical economic info which can be used in forward planning”. Our government clients were also very impressed with your presentation. It was lovely working with you and thank you again.
As usual Craig was a gentleman to deal with and provided an excellent presentation on the world financial scene and at the same time made some timely and relevant observations to pharmacies in Australia. It showed that he had researched his topic so he could relate to the primary interests of the audience.
Craig's speech was brilliant - highly engaging and the response from all our staff was extremely positive. He was able to pitch his presentation to our diverse audience and the content was relevant and easy for all to interpret.
