Jim Gillespie is the sesquicentennial senior lecturer in health policy in the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney, and Deputy Director, Menzies Centre for Health Policy (MCHP).

After completing his PhD at the University of Cambridge, Jim worked for the Australian government and in the Urban Research Unit, Australian National University and the Department of Politics and International Relations, Macquarie University.

As deputy director of the MCHP's Sydney node, Jim is establishing its program on governance of the health system. He recently organized its first Sydney conference, covering these themes. Jim is a chief investigator in the NHMRC health services program research grant on Serious and Continuing Illness Policy and Practice Study (SCIPPS). His work focuses on the effects of institutional arrangements – funding and delivery – on the provision of health care and on the obstacles and opportunities for translating improved practice into sustainable policy. He is the author of The Price of Health: Australian Governments and Medical Politics, Cambridge University Press, 1991 and 2002 and other works on Australian and international health policy.

Jim is co-convener (with Professor Leeder) of the new Graduate Certificate in Health Policy at the University of Sydney, which draws its students from established policy professionals in the health sector. He also teaches health policy modules with the Master of Public Health..

Past consultancy work has covered corporatization and general practice under Medicare, competition policy and the optometry industry in New South Wales and agency nursing in Victoria and the future industrial structure of private health insurance.