Biography

Mr. John Sulan QC is a member of IMF Bentham’s Australia investment committee. He served as a Justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia (2003 to 2016) and District Court (1997 to 2003). 

Mr. Sulan began working as an Associate to the Honourable Justice Walters of the Supreme Court of South Australia in 1968. He became a Prosecutor in the Crown Prosecutor’s Office in South Australia the following year and then a partner at Kelly & Co., Solicitors for the following two years. In 1972, Mr. Sulan assumed the role of Commercial Crown Prosecutor, South Australia. He held the position for four years before becoming the first Commissioner for Corporate Affairs in South Australia.

In 1980, Mr. Sulan returned to private practice, taking a position as a partner at Thomson, Simmons & Co. He then served from 1982 to 1988 as Senior Crown Counsel in the Commercial Crime Unit of the office of the Director of Public Prosecution, Hong Kong and then as Hong Kong Senior Counsel in the Commercial Crime Unit. He was a key prosecutor in one of Hong Kong’s greatest corporate fraud cases, involving Carrian Investments Ltd., which involved the extradition of senior executives of Bank Bumiputra Finance Ltd from the UK to Hong Kong, before returning to Thomson, Simmons & Co. as a partner from 1988 to 1990.  

Mr. Sulan was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1990 and joined the South Australian Bar, where he worked for seven years, mainly on commercial matters. He is well known for the role he played as Special Investigator into the collapse of Bond Corporation Ltd. 

In 1997, Mr. Sulan became a judge of the District Court of South Australia, serving in that role until becoming a justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia in 2003. He retired from the court in April 2016 and joined IMF’s investment committee in October 2016.

Widely recognized throughout his career for his commitment to promoting multiculturalism and religious tolerance, he was the recipient of a Governor’s Multiculturalism Award in 2013. He is now a member of the Judging Panel for the Governor’s Annual Multicultural Awards. He is also a member of the Festival Centre Foundation Board.