Evan William Thornley (born 1964), is an Australian entrepreneur. Thornley was founding chair of Per Capita and National Secretary of the Australian Fabian Society. He was a board member of the Brotherhood of St Laurence and the Chifley Research Centre, was a founding director of GetUp!. He was a co-founder of LookSmart Ltd - the first Australian high tech company listed on NASDAQ. He is also a co-founder of the Goodstart Consortium - a social enterprise that owns the largest childcare network in the world (formerly called ABC Learning). He was formerly the CEO of Better Place Australia and Global CEO of Better Place LLC, a now-defunct company which intended to supply electric cars and the charging or switching stations to support them.
Thornley served in public office for two years as the Labor member of the Victorian Legislative Council for the Southern Metropolitan Region, and as Parliamentary Secretary to Premiers Bracks and Brumby.
Thornley attended Scotch College, Melbourne and is a graduate of the University of Melbourne. He commenced his university studies in 1983 and served in full-time elected student office as President of the Student Representative Council, and then in the National Union of Students in 1987 and 1988. He completed a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1990, and from 1991 to 1995 he was a consultant at McKinsey and Company, a management consultancy firm.