At the height of his power, he was federal treasurer, second in command to Paul Keating.
John Dawkins made his mark before that as education and training minister in the Hawke government, controversially introducing HECS.
He now sits on the board of Australia's biggest superfund CBUS, public relations agency GRA Cosway, South Australia's Education Standards Board, three small listed mining companies and several others.
Some of these positions could be at risk if the Australian Securities and Investments Commission is successful in having him and two other former directors of education provider Vocation disqualified from holding directorships.
ASIC is pursuing Mr Dawkins, former managing director Mark Hutchinson, and former chief financial officer Manvinder Grewal for "misleading and deceptive conduct" in the Federal Court and is seeking civil penalties and disqualification orders against them.
Handsomely paid
Mr Dawkins was handsomely paid for his services to Vocation, which was the result of a merger between education providers CSIA, BAWM Group and Avana.
He was close to the founder of CSIA Brett Whitford, and was paid $1.2 million in cash for his role in the merger.
Mr Dawkins was then paid $857,697 in the first seven months that Vocation was listed, before his resignation in November 2014.
Over the same period Mr Grewal was paid $1.9 million and managing director Mark Hutchinson was paid $348,184.
Papers filed to the court allege the trio "failed to disclose" to investors that crucial funding from the Victorian Government had been withdrawn shortly before Vocation tapped investors for an additional $72.5 million in capital.
The documents show that on August 19, 2014, Vocation acknowledged that Victorian Government had suspended funding and enrolments for Vocation's two biggest subsidiaries BAWM and Aspin, which cost the company in excess of $20 million.
Less than a week later Vocation issued an ASX statement, allegedly approved by Mr Dawkins and Mr Hutchinson, that said in part "funding contracts with the [Victorian Government] have not been suspended and are continuing".
Around 80 per cent of Vocation's total revenue came from Government contracts, and the lion's share of that was from the Victorian Government.
Misleading and deceptive
UBS, the investment bank which handled the capital raising, is said to be furious that it was mislead by the directors when preparing for the capital raising.
"Each of the representations made [to UBS] was misleading and deceptive," ASIC alleged in the document filed to the court.
ASIC alleges that following the split with the Victorian Government Vocation was "cash flow negative" but propped up by the proceeds of the capital raising.
Once Vocation released information about the Victorian Government withdrawing the money to the market in late October the share price plummeted from $2.29 to $1.
It was the beginning of the end for Vocation.
Investor confidence was shaken and enrolments trailed off and Vocation collapsed a year later with $58 million owing, leaving a trail of angry creditors, students and an investor class action in its wake.
On the defence
Mr Dawkins told the ABC ASIC's proceedings would be "vigorously defended".
"I was one of four non-executive directors - although I am the only one part of this action - and I believe we all diligently and collectively fulfilled our disclosure obligations," he said.
CBUS has told the ABC Mr Dawkins notified it promptly of ASIC's actions and the superfund's legal team has reviewed the matter. CBUS says Mr Dawkins will remain on the board.
Vocation's 2015 annual report states that company "is a very different company from a year ago" with the new chairman Doug Halley welcoming the new CEO Stewart Cummings following Mark Hutchinson's resignation.
Mr Halley reflects that the company had been hit hard by the risks posed by its dependence on government funding and damage to its brand which led to a $13 million loss in its final year before its collapse.
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