Malcolm Walter Speed is an Australian businessman and the former CEO

Chief executive officer

A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...

 of the International Cricket Council

International Cricket Council

The International Cricket Council is the international governing body of cricket. It was founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 by representatives from England, Australia and South Africa, renamed the International Cricket Conference in 1965, and took up its current name in 1989.The...

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Before he entered the world of cricket, he was a barrister in Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

. He was originally the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Cricket Board

Cricket Australia

Cricket Australia, formerly known as the Australian Cricket Board, is the governing body for professional and amateur cricket in Australia. It was originally formed in 1905 as the Australian Board of Control for International Cricket...

 from 1997 until in 2001, he took up the job of the CEO of the International Cricket Council. In this role, he has worked with four Presidents of the ICC: Malcolm Gray, Ehsan Mani

Ehsan Mani

Ehsan Mani is a former President of the International Cricket Council . He was born in Rawalpindi in Pakistan on March 23, 1945. He spent his early life in Pakistan playing for the Rawalpindi Club and Government College Lahore XI from 1959 to 1965 as a right-hand batsman and a left-arm fast medium...

, Percy Sonn

Percy Sonn

Percival Henry Frederick Sonn was a South African lawyer and cricket administrator. Sonn became the sixth president of the International Cricket Council, the most senior role at cricket's world governing body, in July 2006...

 and Ray Mali

Ray Mali

Raymond Remember Mali , better known as Ray Mali, was appointed acting President of International Cricket Council in 2007, following the unexpected death of Percy Sonn. He was born in Eastern Cape, South Africa...

. He was succeeded as ICC CEO on 4 April 2008 by Haroon Lorgat

Haroon Lorgat

Haroon Lorgat is a South African, of Indian origin, businessman and chartered accountant. He was appointed Chief Executive of the International Cricket Council in April 2008 and assumed office on 4 July 2008, succeeding Malcolm Speed, an Australian.Lorgat was an executive director of Kapela...

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Speed was put on paid leave until his contract ran out on 4 July 2008 after rumours had been circulating for the last month that he had had a serious falling-out with Ray Mali, the President, following the ICC executive's decision not to take any major action against Zimbabwe following an independent forensic audit carried out by KPMG

KPMG

KPMG is one of the largest professional services networks in the world and one of the Big Four auditors, along with Deloitte, Ernst & Young and PwC. Its global headquarters is located in Amstelveen, Netherlands....

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Speed was formerly in charge of the Australian National Basketball League, and is a member of the NBL Hall of Fame. He was also a board member of the Australian Sports Commission.