Prior to his retirement, Mr Lawson was the principal of Sinclair Knight Merz. During his tenure he had also been the Group Manager of the Company’s global Corporate Social Responsibility Program and the Manager of the Indigenous Sector.

Mr Lawson has worked on major projects in Tasmania and the Antarctic and in 2003 was awarded the Australian Professional Engineer of the Year.

In addition to his engineering career Mr Lawson has been deeply involved in the community sector, seeking to help overcome youth unemployment and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander disadvantage. In 1988 Mr Lawson devised and founded the Beacon Foundation which aimed to alleviate youth unemployment, initially in Tasmania and then nationally, with the rollout of the Beacon Foundation across Australia in 2000. Mr Lawson was awarded an Order of Australia for this work in 2006.

Since his retirement in 2014 Mr Lawson has continued his work to contribute to overcoming Indigenous disadvantage and was the Tasmanian representative on the Prime Ministers’ Expert Panel for the Recognition of Indigenous Australians from 2011 – 2012.

Reconciliation Australia Co-Chair, Professor Tom Calma AO, said “Mr Lawson’s skills and experience across the private, public and community sectors, together with his contributions to overcoming Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander disadvantage are an asset and we welcome him to the Board.”

Mr Lawson attended his first meeting of the Reconciliation Board on 25th June 2015