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brett Freudenberg

Fulbright Professional Business/Industry (Coral Sea) Award

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“The need to maintain Australia as an attractive place for business requires that its tax and corporate regulatory system be readily adaptive in responding to the increasing global business economy. The U.S. has been described as the ‘laboratory of experimentation’ with new business forms. The application of new business forms in an Australian context (the political, economical and regulatory framework) is an exciting prospect.”

Brett Freudenberg has received the Fulbright Business/Industry (Coral Sea) Award established in 1992 by the Coral Sea Commemorative Council to recognise the 50th anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea. Brett is a currently a Senior Lecturer at the Griffith Business School within the Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics at Griffith University and enrolled in a PhD focusing on Hybrid Taxation. His research, at the University of Illinois, will analyse the proliferation of new business forms in the U.S., such as the introduction of Limited Liability Companies and Limited Liability Partnerships through assessing the key characteristics of these business forms and their potential for application to Australian business.

The United States has been on the forefront of the creation and utilisation of new business forms over the last fifteen years, such as Limited Liability Companies, Limited Liability Partnerships and Limited Liability Limited Partnerships. As an emerging global trend, these new business forms have provided an alternative to governments. Australia has been reluctant to adopt these new business forms, and has to date only provided limited recognition of them.

“Given the growing international utilisation of new business forms, especially in the US, a thorough analysis of new business forms in the Australian context is needed. My research will analyse the proliferation of new business forms in the U.S., determine the key drivers for their proliferation, and their key characteristics.”

Brett’s research will evaluate whether these new business forms provide key characteristics demanded by businesses. His research is timely considering that the Australian Government is beginning to offer new business forms in a limited way, which may be expanded in the future.

Brett received the Early Career Award for Teaching Excellence from Griffith University in 2003. He has published in Australian and New Zealand refereed tax journals and prior to commencing with Griffith University was a senior taxation consultant with KPMG and a solicitor with Corrs Chambers Westgarth.