Stephen Phillip Bracks (born 15 October 1954) is a former Australian politician and was the 44th Premier of Victoria. He first won the electoral district of Williamstown in 1994 for the Labor Party and was party leader and premier from 1999 to 2007. Bracks led Labor in Victoria to minority government at the 1999 election, defeating the incumbent Jeff Kennett Liberal and National coalition government. Labor was returned with a majority government after a landslide win at the 2002 election. Labor was elected for a third term at the 2006 election with a substantial but reduced majority. The treasurer, John Brumby, became Labor leader and premier in 2007 when Bracks retired from politics. Bracks is the third-longest-serving Labor premier in Victorian history, surpassed only by John Cain Jr. and incumbent premier Daniel Andrews. Bracks will serve as the 6th Chancellor of Victoria University from 2021. Early life Steve Bracks was born in Ballarat, where his family owns a fashion business. He is a Lebanese Australian; his paternal grandfather came to Australia as a child from Zahlé in the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon in the 1890s. His family were Melkite Catholic before migrating and became Roman Catholic. Bracks was educated in Ballarat at St Patrick's College and the Ballarat College of Advanced Education (now Federation University), where he graduated in business studies and education. He became a keen follower of Australian rules football, supporting the Geelong Football Club. Before politics From 1976 to 1981 Bracks was a school commerce teacher at Sacred Heart College, Ballarat. During the 1980s he worked in local government in Ballarat and then as Executive Director of the Ballarat Education Centre. While in these positions he twice (1985 and 1988) contested the seat of Ballarat North in the Victorian Legislative Assembly for the Labor Party. In 1989 Bracks was appointed statewide manager of Victorian state government employment programs, under the Labor government of John Cain Jr. He then became an adviser to both Cain and Cain's successor as Premier, Joan Kirner. Here he witnessed from the inside the collapse of the Labor government following the economic and budgetary crisis which began in 1988. This experience gave Bracks a very conservative and cautious view of economic management in government. Following the defeat of the Kirner government by the Liberal leader Jeff Kennett in late 1992, Bracks became Executive Director of the Victorian Printing Industry Training Board. Kirner resigned