Bill McLennan, a former Australian Statistician who had also headed the UK Government Statistical Service, died on 19 March 2022 at the age of 80.

Bill McLennan was born in 1942 in Grafton, New South Wales. His childhood was spent in a rural village. Bill moved with his family to the industrial city of Wollongong as a child and his father died not long afterwards.

Bill's family would have found it tough during these formative years, but it clearly had a big influence on his approach to life and work. He was quick to understand the issues that were really important, clear on his goals and tenacious in achieving them. He never backed away from an argument if that was necessary to come to a common understanding. Despite the impression of being a hard head, he was very empathetic to his staff when they had personal issues.

He joined the Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics (which become the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in 1975) in 1960 as a statistics cadet. Bill gained a degree in Statistics and Economics from the Australia National University and started working at the Bureau full time in 1964. He spent all his career there, apart from his time in United Kingdom.

Initially he worked as a mathematical statistician on sampling and methodology, rising to become head of branch in 1973 at a remarkably young age. Bill helped to expand the capability of the ABS to conduct a greatly enhanced population survey program. This had a big and long-standing influence on the availability of social statistics in Australia.

Early in his career, Bill's strong leadership qualities were recognised and subsequent postings nurtured that potential and broadened his experience. In the policy coordination area of the ABS, he worked closely with the Executive and led significant changes to statistics legislation. He headed the ABS office in Victoria for a year before further promotion to take charge of the Coordination and Management Division in head office.

Bill oversaw the establishment of the corporate planning system, leading to the production of ABS's first Corporate Plan in 1987. He also had oversight of the introduction of the data management function. He was intimately involved in the management of the move of all ABS systems to a new mainframe environment and subsequently, despite considerable resistance by IT professionals at the time, the use of microcomputers and internet technologies. Bill championed these developments because he could see opportunities to reduce costs and improve flexibility in administrative and statistical activities.

In 1986, Bill was appointed Deputy Australian Statistician with Ian Castles being the Australian Statistician at the time. In effect, with Ian's approval, Bill became the Chief Executive whilst Ian focused on his special interests although they worked closely together especially on the more significant issues. Throughout this period, the ABS earned a very strong reputation both within Australia and externally for how it was managed, its effective use of technology and for the quality of its outputs. Bill deserves much of the credit.

In 1987, ABS was given the choice of taking sizeable budget cuts or raising the equivalent in revenue from sales of products and services. Bill chose the latter, seizing the opportunity to focus on the needs of users of ABS products. With a more professional approach to product design, marketing and service delivery, the changes resulted in a very substantial improvement in the ABS's customer focus and the services and products it provided.

In 1992, Bill was appointed Director of the Central Statistical Office (CSO) and head of the Government Statistical Service (GSS) of the United Kingdom, the first person from outside the United Kingdom to hold this post. The UK statistical system had been through a challenging period. Bill's arrival signalled a much stronger role for the office. Bill brought with him his passion for statistical presentation and marketing. He recognised the fundamental role of official statistics for democracy and that the work of the GSS needed to be better understood. He was instrumental in an important paragraph in a Government White Paper that speaks of open access to official statistics both providing a picture of society and offering a ‘window on the work and performance of government itself’.

Bill persuaded the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Norman Lamont, to reduce ministerial access to economic statistics in advance of publication and to permit statistics to be released independently of ministers. He produced the Official Statistics Code of Practice, first published in April 1995, which set good practice and principles for statisticians producing official statistics with the aim of promoting high standards and maintaining public confidence in official statistics. He led the CSO through its early years as a 'Next Steps Agency' with demanding and quantified targets for the accuracy of statistics.

During his tenure, he proposed the merger of the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys and the CSO into the Office for National Statistics, and gained agreement for this from Prime Minister John Major. Bill was also active in ensuring that the United Kingdom took a major role in shaping the agenda for harmonisation of European Union statistics.

Bill's time in United Kingdom was relatively short, at 3 years, but he certainly left UK statistics in a different and much improved state from when he started, notably in that the remit of the ONS was clearly established as serving government and the wider community. Many existing arrangements in UK statistics are due to initiatives he undertook. They reflect his understanding of what is really important for a national statistical office and his skill at looking through a mass of information and working out what is really important.

In 1995, Bill returned to Australia to become Australian Statistician. Bill's many achievements and strong leadership style are typified by the shift to disseminating statistics through the internet and the website. His legacy here was the need to really understand the market and not to simply follow the latest fad. Other examples are the development of the first Certified Agreement between the ABS and its employees, linking wages and salaries to productivity outcomes, and in making greater use of administrative data for statistical purposes. Bill had a special interest in the development of staff. He also pushed ABS to take a constructive interest in the statistical activities of other government agencies. This led to the establishment of the National Statistical Service.

As Deputy Australian Statistician, Bill had developed a stronger interest in international statistical activities. He personally led a reawakening of the relationship with Statistics New Zealand and later took leadership roles across the Asian Pacific region more widely, with the ESCAP Committee of Statistics and the Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific. The ABS's International Centre was named in Bill's honour in recognition of the much closer relationships he built with statistical agencies in the region.

Bill was elected Chairman of the United Nations Statistical Commission from 1994 to 1995. It was during this time that the Commission endorsed the first version of the Fundamental Principles for Official Statistics.

Bill retired as Australian Statistician in 2000. He was awarded a CBE and an AM for significant contributions to UK and Australian statistics respectively.

He remained active for a number of years after retirement, including with statistical consultancies in several countries. Bill also chaired the Assessment Review Panel advising the Government on compensation claims following the collapse of HIH, one of Australia's largest insurance companies.

Bill always had plenty of interests outside work. He was an avid reader and a very capable sportsman, representing the Australian Capital Territory at both rugby and squash. In more recent years, his focus was on golf. He loved Australia and travelled it widely, especially the rural and remote areas. He bought a motor home which he used frequently, usually accompanied by the golf sticks and always some good quality red wine.

前澳大利亚统计学家、英国政府统计局负责人比尔·麦克伦南 (Bill McLennan) 于 2022 年 3 月 19 日去世，享年 80 岁。

比尔·麦克伦南 (Bill McLennan) 1942 年出生于新南威尔士州的格拉夫顿。他的童年是在农村度过的。比尔小时候随家人搬到工业城市卧龙岗，不久他的父亲就去世了。

在比尔的成长岁月里，他的家人会发现生活很艰难，但这显然对他的生活和工作方式产生了重大影响。他很快就理解了真正重要的问题，明确了自己的目标并顽强地实现了这些目标。如果有必要达成共识，他从不放弃争论。尽管给人的印象是头脑冷静，但当员工遇到个人问题时，他非常同情他们。

他于 1960 年加入联邦人口普查和统计局（1975 年成为澳大利亚统计局 (ABS)），成为一名统计学员。Bill 在澳大利亚国立大学获得了统计和经济学学位，并于 1964 年开始在该局全职工作。除了在英国的时间外，他的所有职业生涯都是在那里度过的。

最初，他是抽样和方法学方面的数理统计学家，1973 年在非常年轻的时候晋升为分支机构负责人。Bill 帮助扩大了 ABS 的能力，以进行大大增强的人口调查计划。这对澳大利亚社会统计数据的可用性产生了重大而长期的影响。

在他职业生涯的早期，比尔强大的领导才能得到认可，随后的职位培养了他的潜力并拓宽了他的经验。在 ABS 的政策协调领域，他与行政部门密切合作，并领导对统计立法进行重大改革。他在维多利亚州的 ABS 办公室领导了一年，之后进一步晋升负责总部的协调和管理部。

Bill 监督了公司规划系统的建立，导致 ABS 在 1987 年制定了第一份公司计划。他还监督了数据管理功能的引入。他密切参与了将所有 ABS 系统迁移到新大型机环境的管理工作，随后，尽管当时 IT 专业人员相当反对，他还是使用了微型计算机和互联网技术。比尔支持这些发展，因为他看到了降低成本和提高行政和统计活动灵活性的机会。

1986 年，Bill 被任命为澳大利亚副统计师，而 Ian Castles 则是当时的澳大利亚统计师。实际上，在 Ian 的批准下，Bill 成为了首席执行官，而 Ian 专注于他的特殊利益，尽管他们密切合作，尤其是在更重要的问题上。在此期间，ABS 因其管理方式、技术的有效使用以及产出的质量在澳大利亚国内外赢得了非常好的声誉。比尔值得称赞。

1987 年，ABS 可以选择是大幅削减预算，还是从产品和服务的销售中增加同等收入。比尔选择了后者，抓住机会关注ABS产品用户的需求。通过采用更专业的产品设计、营销和服务交付方法，这些变化导致 ABS 以客户为中心及其提供的服务和产品有了非常大的改进。

1992 年，比尔被任命为英国中央统计局 (CSO) 主任和政府统计局 (GSS) 负责人，这是担任此职位的第一位来自英国以外的人。英国统计系统经历了一段充满挑战的时期。比尔的到来标志着该办公室发挥了更大的作用。比尔带来了他对统计展示和市场营销的热情。他承认官方统计数据对民主的根本作用，需要更好地理解 GSS 的工作。他在政府白皮书的一个重要段落中发挥了重要作用，该段落谈到开放获取官方统计数据既可以提供社会图景，也可以提供“了解政府本身的工作和绩效的窗口”。

比尔说服财政大臣诺曼·拉蒙特 (Norman Lamont) 减少部长级在公布经济统计数据之前获得的机会，并允许独立于部长发布统计数据。他制定了官方统计业务守则，于 1995 年 4 月首次发布，为统计人员编制官方统计数据制定了良好做法和原则，旨在促进高标准和维护公众对官方统计数据的信心。他带领 CSO 度过了早期作为“下一步机构”的阶段，对统计数据的准确性制定了苛刻和量化的目标。

在任期间，他提议将人口普查和调查办公室与公民统计局合并为国家统计局，并获得首相约翰·梅杰的同意。比尔还积极确保联合王国在制定欧盟统计协调议程方面发挥重要作用。

比尔在英国的时间相对较短，只有 3 年，但与他开始时相比，他确实使英国的统计数据处于不同的和大大改善的状态，特别是英国国家统计局的职权范围明确确立为为政府和更广泛的社区服务。英国统计数据中的许多现有安排都归功于他采取的举措。它们反映了他对什么对国家统计局真正重要的理解，以及他查看大量信息并找出真正重要的东西的技能。

1995 年，Bill 回到澳大利亚成为澳大利亚统计学家。比尔的许多成就和强有力的领导风格体现在转向通过互联网和网站传播统计数据。他在这里的遗产是需要真正了解市场，而不是简单地追随最新的时尚。其他例子包括 ABS 与其员工之间第一份认证协议的制定，将工资和薪金与生产力结果联系起来，以及更多地使用行政数据进行统计。比尔对员工的发展特别感兴趣。他还推动 ABS 对其他政府机构的统计活动产生建设性的兴趣。这导致了国家统计局的成立。

作为澳大利亚副统计员，比尔对国际统计活动产生了浓厚的兴趣。他亲自带领重新唤醒了与新西兰统计局的关系，后来在更广泛的亚太地区发挥了领导作用，包括亚太经社会统计委员会和亚洲及太平洋统计研究所。ABS 的国际中心以比尔的名字命名，以表彰他与该地区统计机构建立的更密切的关系。

Bill was elected Chairman of the United Nations Statistical Commission from 1994 to 1995. It was during this time that the Commission endorsed the first version of the Fundamental Principles for Official Statistics.

Bill 于 2000 年退休，担任澳大利亚统计学家。他因对英国和澳大利亚统计的重大贡献分别获得了 CBE 和 AM。

退休后，他仍然活跃了很多年，包括在多个国家从事统计咨询工作。比尔还主持了评估审查小组，就澳大利亚最大的保险公司之一 HIH 倒闭后的赔偿要求向政府提出建议。

比尔在工作之外总是有很多兴趣。他是一位狂热的读者，也是一位非常有能力的运动员，代表澳大利亚首都领地参加橄榄球和壁球比赛。近年来，他的注意力集中在高尔夫上。他热爱澳大利亚，游历广泛，尤其是农村和偏远地区。他买了一辆他经常使用的房车，通常伴随着高尔夫球杆和一些优质的红酒。