Alan Griffiths

Since 2010, Griffiths has been Executive Chairman of Shopitize based in the UK. The technology uses data from shopper dockets to provide FMCG companies with statistics that can help grow market share. The Shopitize platform enables brands to better understand consumer spending habits across channels at the level of individual products and provide more targeted offers.

In December 2010, Griffiths was appointed as a non-executive director of Guildford Coal Limited.

Griffiths, the majority owner and founder of Quantm, and the Quantm board in 2006 agreed to sell the company to an arm of a U.S. construction conglomerate, Trimble Navigation Ltd, for what was believed to be a multi-million dollar price tag to pursue other entrepreneurial business ventures, including a United Kingdom-based high technology business. In early 2006, Quantm, as a leader in transport route optimisation, was selected by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) – Transportation Research Board as one of eight technologies enabling highway and railroad planners to successfully factor in environmental concerns in transportation decisions Quantm, which by 2006 was already being used by 14 U.S. states, was chosen from a field of 70 technologies for the prestigious award

In 1994, Griffiths resigned as Minister for Industry, Technology and Regional Development after the "Sandwich Shop Affair" came to light. It was alleged that ALP funds, resources and staff wages from Griffiths' electoral office were used to bail out his business partner from a failed sandwich shop venture in Melbourne's Moonee Ponds. An inquiry by the former head of the Department of Prime Minister, Mike Codd, into the scandal cleared Griffiths of any wrongdoing. Griffiths was also cleared of any wrongdoing by the Australian Federal Police, who were alerted to the matter by Griffiths. Despite being cleared by the Codd inquiry – an investigation which Griffiths had also requested – he announced at the Victorian ALP Conference in April 1995 that he would not contest the 1996 election, which Labor lost. In his resignation speech, Griffiths acknowledged the allegations had taken "a lot of momentum out of my career". But he had waited for "total vindication" before declaring his resignation. "I am in the happy situation of being totally vindicated," he told the media at the time. "I spoke to the Prime Minister this morning who I might say tried to talk me out of announcing my resignation and who confirmed his previous public commitment that I would return to the Cabinet as soon as possible. But there is life after politics, and I intend to pursue life after politics." In a statement, then prime minister Paul Keating praised Griffiths' contribution to the parliament and the cabinet from the time of his election in 1983. "It has always been my expectation and hope that the current inquiry into those matters will clear Alan Griffiths of any wrongdoing," Keating said. "Alan Griffiths would have had sufficient support among his parliamentary colleagues to return to the ministry in due course. I would certainly have welcomed his return to Cabinet." At the time, Codd had offered to give the prime minister an interim report which could have cleared the way for Griffiths to make an early return to the Cabinet. But the prime minister declined, preferring to await the final report which would take several more months.

At the time of his appointment to the Industry portfolio, Griffiths was described as "the big winner out of Paul Keating's ministerial reshuffle". While in this portfolio, the development of Australia's regional areas was a key focus, including the establishment of the Task Force on Regional Development, which visited 60 regions across Australia to hear community ideas for local development. The Task Force, which was instructed to examine the differing effects of industry and economic structural change between regions, was led by the then ACTU Secretary, Bill Kelty and reported back to Griffiths in December 1993.

As Chair of the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee in 1989, Griffiths headed a government inquiry into insider trading. Griffiths told the media at the time that anecdotal evidence suggested there was a wide spectrum of involvement in areas of insider trading in the business community and it was therefore incumbent upon governments to ensure they took whatever steps were available to prevent that sort of business behavior.

Member, Parliamentary Delegation to the European Parliamentary Institutions, Strasbourg, Brussels and the Federal Republic of Germany, September 1986. Official visits to Indonesia, South Korea and Japan, December 1990; Bali, February 1991; Papua New Guinea, April 1991; Italy, France, Poland, USSR and UK, July 1991; Tahiti, Chile and USA, October–November 1991; Hong Kong and Japan, March–April 1992; New Zealand, April 1992; Brazil and USA, June 1992; Spain, UK and USA, July 1992; Indonesia and Singapore, September–October 1992; Taiwan and Hong Kong, October–November 1992; Indonesia, November 1992; Vietnam, December 1992; Japan, Malaysia and Hong Kong, June–July 1993; Indonesia, September 1993; Japan and China, October–November 1993. Member, Parliamentary Delegation to USA and Canada, March–April 1995.

Entering the parliament in 1983, Griffiths became the Minister for Resources in 1990, the Minister for Tourism in 1991 and the Minister for Industry, Technology and Regional Development in 1993.

Griffiths was a member of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Privileges from 1983 to 1984, the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee from 1987 to 1990 and the Industry, Science and Technology Committee from 1994 to 1996. Griffiths also served on the Joint Statutory National Crime Authority Committee from 1984 to 1987 and the Joint Select Committee on Electoral Reform from 1983 to 1984.

Griffiths' first contact with politics came in the early 1980s, when he worked in the office of former New South Wales Premier, Neville Wran, before being elected to the Federal seat of Maribyrnong in 1983.

Griffiths graduated from Monash University in 1979 with a Bachelor of Economics and a Bachelor of Laws.

Griffiths showed early entrepreneurial flair. In the early 1970s, while working in a shipyard, he raffled his first pay cheque, selling tickets to workmates and earning well above the value of his wage.

Alan Gordon Griffiths (born 4 September 1952), is a former Australian politician who represented the Division of Maribyrnong for the Australian Labor Party from March 1983 to January 1996. Griffiths was a senior Minister in the Hawke and Keating governments and is now a businessman and non-executive director. Griffiths specialises in commercialising new technologies, including the road alignment software, Quantm, which has been used on Australasian, US and Asian infrastructure projects.