Professor Shamit Saggar CBE FAcSS is the Executive Director of the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education and Professor of Public Policy and Management at Curtin University. He is also a Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia's Africa Research and Engagement Centre, a Fellow at UWA Oceans Institute and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Western Australia.

He was formerly the Director of the University of Western Australia’s Public Policy Institute also comprising the UWA Australia India Institute and the UWA Australia Indonesia Centre. Prior to this, Professor Saggar has held academic appointments at the universities of Liverpool, Queen Mary London, Sussex, UCLA, Yale and Toronto. He has combined academia with senior leadership roles in a range of sectors, including in government, as senior adviser to former prime minister Tony Blair, regulation, with the Financial Services Authority and the Solicitors Regulation Authority, commerce as chairman of UPP Group Holdings Ltd, and philanthropy, as UK adviser to Unbound Philanthropy.

A Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, Professor Saggar was recognised in the 2017 Queen’s Birthday Honours with a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to social science and public policy.

Professor Saggar is currently writing a book-length study of public policy for researchers and practitioners drawing on his own experience in shaping and implementing policy.