The Honourable John Sharp AM is an aviator, having been a licensed pilot of both fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft. He established his own high-level aviation and transport consulting company.
Mr Sharp was a member of the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth Parliament for 14 years (1984 – 1998). He was Honorary Federal Treasurer of the National Party of Australia from 1999 to 2017, and retired from the House of Representatives in 1998.
Mr Sharp was chair of the Aviation Safety Foundation of Australia. In 2001, he became a director of Airbus Group, Australia Pacific, a position he retired from in June 2015. He has retired as chair of the Parsons Brinkerhoff Advisory Board, an engineering and design company operating throughout Australia and the region. He is chair of Pel-Air Aviation; and a director of Power and Data Corporation, Luerssen Australia, and the Australian Maritime Shipbuilding Export Group
Mr Sharp is also a trustee and board member of John McKeown House. He has been a member of the University of Wollongong Vice Chancellor's Advisory Board, a director of the Tudor House Foundation, and a director of the Flight Safety Foundation following his receipt of the Foundation's Presidential Citation for Aviation Safety, the first Australian to receive this award. He has been a director of the French, Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, co-chair of the Cancer Council of NSW Southern Highlands Branch, and a director of the Climate Change Authority.
In 2018, Mr Sharp was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to the people and Parliament of Australia, to the aviation industry, and the community.
