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Dr Henry was born in Taree NSW on 27 November 1957. He completed a first class honours degree in economics at the University of NSW in 1979. From February 1980 to September 1984 he was a lecturer in the economics department of the University of Canterbury (Christchurch, New Zealand), where he completed his PhD in 1982. In September 1984 he returned to Australia, accepting a position in Treasury’s Taxation Policy Division.  He was a member of the Treasury team that put together the Government's draft White Paper on Tax Reform (published in June 1985) and contributed to the development of the Government’s tax reform package (Reform of the Australian Taxation System, September 1985).

From September 1986 to June 1991, Dr Henry worked as a senior adviser to the Treasurer, providing advice on taxation policy and administration, retirement incomes policy, industry policy and microeconomic reform (including telecommunications reform). In June 1991 he returned to the Treasury, becoming head of the Microeconomic Modelling Unit. In July 1992 he took up the position of Minister (Economic and Financial Affairs) in the Australian Delegation to the OECD in Paris.

Dr Henry returned to the Treasury in January 1994 as head of the Taxation Policy Division. In August 1997 he was appointed Chairman of the Government’s Taxation Task Force, responsible for providing advice to the Government on tax reform options. In October 1998 he was promoted to the position of Executive Director (Deputy Secretary) of Treasury’s Economic Group, and a member of the Treasury Executive Board. In that role he had executive responsibility for domestic macroeconomic policy advice, domestic economic forecasting, and advice on international economic issues (including Australia’s relationship with the multilateral international financial institutions).

On 27 April 2001, Dr Henry was appointed Secretary to the Treasury. Dr Henry was reappointed for a further 5 years from 27 April 2006. He is an ex-officio member of the Board of Taxation, member of the Board of the Reserve Bank of Australia, Alternate Governor (for Australia) of the International Monetary Fund and Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Australian Office of Financial Management.

Dr Henry was awarded a Companion of the Order of Australia General Division (AC) in the Australia Day Honours 2007.