Margaret Jackson

Margaret Jackson
Born	1953 (1953)
Occupation	Company director

Margaret Jackson, AC (born 17 March 1953) is an Australian corporate executive.

Jackson was born in Warragul, Victoria, and studied at Warragul High School. She graduated with a Bachelor of Economics degree from Monash University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Melbourne. She is a chartered accountant and a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia.

Jackson was the chairman of Qantas from 2000 to 2007 and was the first woman to become chairman of a top-50 publicly listed company in Australia. She had been a director of Qantas since 1992, her other directorships include the ANZ since 1994 and .

Jackson is a former partner of accounting firm KPMG and has also worked for accounting firms BDO Nelson Parkhill and Pricewaterhouse (now PricewaterhouseCoopers).

In early May 2007, Jackson faced mounting pressure to resign from the board of Qantas after the dramatic last-minute failure of the Qantas takeover bid by Airline Partners Australia. After the bid failed, she faced criticism that she had undervalued the airline, was reluctant to release upgraded profit forecasts and did not act in the best interests of the majority of shareholders. Jackson was one of the most outspoken supporters of the takeover bid and, when asked of the ramifications of the bid failing, she famously stated, "If anyone thinks this will happen without affecting the (share) price then they have a mental problem with how the market works." This was interpreted by some observers as an insult to shareholders and evidence that Jackson was actively lobbying for the takeover consortium.

On 17 May 2007, Jackson informed the Qantas board that she would "retire from the board when her term ends at this year's AGM", due to be held in November of that year. The board put its support behind Jackson's decision to stay on until then because it ensured "continuity and stability" was maintained in the company.

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