Samantha Tough

Samantha Tough

Pro Vice Chancellor (Industry and Commercial)

Leading the Office of Industry and Commercial Development

Samantha commenced as Pro Vice Chancellor Engagement leading the Innovation and Industry Engagement group at UWA on 1 July 2019. In 2022 the group amalgamated with commercialisation at UWA to become The Office of Industry and Commercial Development (OICD), and Samantha's title was updated to reflect this broader scope.

Samantha brings over 25 years industry experience in many industry sectors to UWA.  She is focussed on leveraging her deep and broad industry experience to position UWA as a both an education and business partner of choice.

Samantha has worked in executive and non-executive roles in a large range of industry including law, energy, oil and gas, mining, engineering, machine learning and AI technology, agriculture, health, finance and commercialisation.

Executive roles include General Manager North West Shelf Woodside; President Resources Commonwealth Bank; Director Pilbara Power Project; CEO Asthma Foundation WA; Executive Chair Australian Grains Champion; COO Plexus Ltd.

Samantha has also been a Director for 20+ organisations over 20 years. 

She is currently Chair of Horizon Power and Director of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.

Previous board roles include Director Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd; Director Synergy; Chair Australian Grains Champion; Director Cape plc; Chair Southern Cross Goldfields; Chair Advanced Well Technology; Chair Aerison Pty Ltd; Chair RemCo; Director Ox Mountain Pty Ltd.

On innovation and commercialisation, Samantha has been involved with the commercialisation of research and early start ups for many years.

She was an inaugural Member of the Curtin University Investment Board and has held directorships in a number of early stage ventures.

Samantha is an alumni of UWA with a LLB and B.Juris from the UWA Law School.

She is also a Fellow of the AICD.