Dr Piero Ammirato

Piero has a passion for researching and writing about the social economy and for promoting
a more humane economic system that is able to provide employment for all and promote
equality, inclusion and sustainable community development. In 2018 he published his
second book on cooperatives titled: Italian Cooperative Growth: Innovation, Resilience and
Social Responsibility, Routledge. The book explained how cooperatives manage to compete
in the market whilst acting in a socially responsible way. The research demonstrated how
cooperatives managed to grow and create jobs during the GFC and how they directly, or
through their networks, support the communities in which they operate.

Piero has spent over 20 years working with the Victorian and South Australian Public Sector
including working as a Principal Policy Adviser with the Victorian Department of Premier and
Cabinet. He led regulation reviews at the Office of Regulation Reform; promoted the
establishment of the Victorian Small Business Commissioner; promoted the Victorian Public
Sector Risk Management Framework; and co-developed the Victorian Government’s initial
economic clusters strategy. Piero also worked as principal adviser in governance, and as a
manager of risk and compliance at Victorian Universities.

Piero has been a Director of the Federation of Italian Migrant Workers and their Families,
Tenants Victoria, and, most recently, the South East Housing Cooperative.
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Qualifications: Bachelor of Arts Degree (with Honours), and Ph.D, Politics Department, University of Adelaide; Postgraduate Diploma in Government Law, Faculty of Law, University of Melbourne; and Diploma, Company Directors Course, Australian Institute of Company Directors, (2010).