Melinda Brown

Melinda Brown works at the epicentre of international tax law, striving to develop policy that fosters an equitable, prosperous future for all nations.

As a Senior Advisor to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), she’s spoken at global economic forums, helped author influential policy documents and even taken a seat on the United Nations Subcommittee on Transfer Pricing, her tax specialty.

Melinda’s work involves applying her technical expertise to the formulation of new transfer pricing, standards and legislation (laws that govern how multinational companies trade across borders among their own subsidiaries) and supporting developing economies in the space.

“Within international tax, the OECD does have a pretty privileged position as we're respected in both the developed and the developing worlds,” she says.

“And the work itself is rewarding; how you interact with policymakers can have an impact on policy or guidelines that become a global standard.”

The Griffith University Medal winner admits her stellar career—which has seen her represent the OECD at G20 meetings and Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) forums—was initially steered by “more good luck than good management on my part”.

She completed her Bachelor of International Business (Honours) in 1997, graduating into a job market ravaged by the Asian financial crisis of that year.

Melinda was hired two years later by the Australian Taxation Office amid the agency’s recruitment binge to prepare for the incoming GST.

My degree had “international” in the name, so they put me in “large business and international pricing”, she laughs, “and I spoke Japanese, so one of the first jobs I had was doing transfer pricing audits on Japanese companies out of the Brisbane ATO office.”

She was later seconded to Treasury to advise on new transfer pricing laws, before winning her role at OECD headquarters in Paris.

“The OECD guidelines are the reference for transfer pricing—it’s the book you have on your desk and point to in negotiations to defend your argument—so to go to the OECD to work on what those guidelines say was a pretty amazing opportunity,” she says.

After almost a decade in Paris, Melinda’s moved to the OECD’s Jakarta office for a 2022 secondment timed to support Indonesia taking over the G20 presidency - a natural progression given her fluency in Indonesian and previous connections with the country.

She was recently part of the OECD delegation at a G20 finance meeting in Bali and helped deliver major global reforms to ensure multinationals are taxed on their profits no matter where in the world they operate, landmark policy co-signed by 137 countries and jurisdictions around the world.

“This time last year I might have been more pessimistic—multi-lateralism was not looking like the way of the future—but in the end, we did have some fairly remarkable success getting a new international tax deal, one that shows co-operation isn’t dead.”

“It was hard work—corralling more than 100 countries—and it’s not a perfect deal, no stakeholder is completely satisfied, but that’s usually a sign of a good compromise.”