Caron Beaton-Wells was appointed the Dean, Internal of the Melbourne Business School in 2020. She is also a Professorial Fellow of the Melbourne Law School and a lay member of the Australian Competition Tribunal. In her role as Dean, Internal Caron leads the School’s Executive Leadership Team across the functions of teaching and learning in all degree and executive education programs, research, marketing, alumni engagement, people and culture and corporate services.

Caron was previously a Professor in Competition Law at the Melbourne Law School (2002-2020), where she held the positions as Associate Dean (Melbourne Law Masters) and Associate Dean (Undergraduate). She was also founding Director of the Competition Law & Economics Network and Global Competition and Consumer Law Program, the Law School’s first wholly online program.

Caron’s research and teaching lies at the intersection of law, economics and business disciplines as they relate to competition in markets. Her research projects have focussed on the role of data and analytics in market structures and dynamics, competition and fairness in concentrated markets, criminal sanctions for cartel conduct, private enforcement of competition law, and the interface between competition and consumer law.

She has been awarded substantial research funding and published extensively, contributing to the intellectual and public discourse around the world on significant competition law-related issues, including as host of the popular podcast, Competition Lore. Caron is a member of national and international editorial and advisory boards, has consulted to the OECD, ASEAN, and the New Zealand Government, is a non-governmental advisor to the International Competition Network, the Law School's representative on UNCTAD's Research Partnership Platform, and a member of the Law Council of Australia's competition and consumer and small business committees.

Formerly a solicitor at (now) King & Wood Mallesons and a member of the Victorian Bar, practising in commercial and government law, Caron was the 2019 recipient of the Academic of the Year (Women in Law) Award.

Caron is a member of Chief Executive Women, Australia's peak organisation for influencing and engaging all levels of business and government to achieve gender balance and equity.