ACT  NSW  Qld  SA  Tas  Vic 

From Pearcey

TO: Friends of Pearcey

FROM: National Executive Committee (Wayne Fitzsimmons, Rick Harvey, Charles Lindop, Phil McCrea, Len Rust, Dr Peter Thorne)

Lots of activity from your State and National Committees (all of whom give of their time freely) points to a very active second half of 2011 for our Foundation.

Brand Hoff wins 2011 Pearcey Medal at National iAwards event

The prestigious Pearcey Medal was presented to Mr Brand Hoff, founder and former CEO of Tower Software, by Dr Ian Oppermann, Director ICT Centre at CSIRO which is a prominent supporter of these ICT industry awards’ programs. Dr Oppermann commented that: “Brand Hoff has been an outstanding business leader and exemplar entrepreneur for the whole of his career, focussed in the ACT. His pioneering efforts in records management systems positioned Australia as the world’s leader in the creation and use of this now pervasive technology. It is through individual efforts from people like Mr Hoff, that exemplifies how Australia can successfully innovate and so improves its productivity.” Mr Hoff is currently a board member of National ICT Australia (NICTA), Australia’s publically funded premier research group dedicated to the ICT industry. He is also Chairman of the Canberra Business Council amongst a host of directorships he also holds. Mr Hoff is a Fellow of the Australian Computer Society.

Two other outstanding contributors to the ICT industry were inducted into the Pearcey Hall of Fame during the evening:

Dr Ann Moffatt, whose career spanned across the UK as well as Australia, was recognised for her outstanding efforts as an ICT professional and for her dedication to recognising the role of women in ICT. In 1989 she founded Females information Technology and Telecommunications (FITT) a highly successful self help organisation for women in the ICT sector. From 1998-2000 she was a Board Member of the NSW TAFE Commission and was instrumental in formulating the Return project, providing computer skills to women throughout Greater Western Sydney to enable them to re-enter the workforce. Dr Moffatt is a Fellow of the Australian Computer Society and in 2006 received an honorary PhD from the University of Southern Queensland.

Dr Dennis Moore is considered to be the father of ICT in Western Australia being responsible for the first computer being installed at the University of Western Australia in 1965. He had a major influence in computing covering the State Government as well as the academic institutions of WA spanning more than three decades. Dennis successfully moved between academia, industry and government during his career and dedicated his professional career to promoting the role of ICT in our society and was recognised in 2006 for his sustained efforts by being awarded Member of the Order of Australia.

Rasmussen Brothers win 2011 Benson Entrepreneur Award

Lars and Jens Rasmussen, founders of Google Maps and Google Wave, were presented the Award by Dr Ian Oppermann, Director of the ICT centre, CSIRO. Dr Oppermann commented: “Lars and Jens's development of Google Maps has positioned Australia as a global leader in online services. It resulted in Google establishing a significant research and development team in Sydney and the creation of many high tech jobs. Google Maps is now used by around 1/3 of all Google visitors and represents over 3% of all total global Google traffic. Clearly this is a fine example of Australian ingenuity making an outstanding global impact and literally put Australia ‘on the map’.”

The Benson Entrepreneur Award is named in memory of Tony Benson who during his lifetime gave endless support to the next generation of younger ICT entrepreneurs who were running a risk and making a difference to the ICT industry. This year there were six finalists drawn from the 2010 individual Pearcey State Award winners. The selection process will change in 2012 but your National Committee are convinced the Pearcey Medal and Hall of Fame Awards along with the Benson Entrepreneur Award have become the most prestigious awards for individuals in the ICT industry.

Australia 3.0 Forum

In addition to the iAwards dinner, the Pearcey Foundation played a major role in organising two debates (each lasting two and a half hours) during the daytime preceding the dinner. The organising committee, drawn from the three organisations, wanted to ensure there was a Chatham House Rules debate along the lines we have conducted in most previous Pearcey Medal events. What occurred was what we called the Australia 3.0 Forum. The two topics discussed were as follows:

1. How will the Digital Economy transform Australia’s productivity and sustainability?

2. How does innovation in Australia leverage off new technology platforms and so lift our national productivity levels?

Chair of the first session held (10.00am to 12.30pm) was Roger Perry of the Bevington Group and Chair of the afternoon session (2.00pm to 4.30pm) was Dr Peter Cebon of the Melbourne Business School. Each session was led off by the Chair posing questions to each of the 5 distinguished panellists (different panellists for each session). Then the Chair set specific task for the participants (some 150 in all and each by invitation) and asked them to report back verbally to the meeting as a whole in an orderly proscribed fashion. At the close of the second session the rapporteur for the Forum, Brad Howarth, presented his summary of the discussions overall. As well Senator Kate Lundy gave a five minute perspective on the topics discussed as she has attended most of our debates in the past and is a big supporter of these debates. In brief the actions arising from the meeting have been summarised by Brad Howarth and will be published on our website shortly.

Pearcey State Awards program for 2011

The various state and territory events are now well in to the planning stage are set out in the table below. Full details will be published on our website as soon as they are finalised but we ask you to update your diaries early.

• ACT Wed 14th Sept 2011 - Joint ACS, Pearcey Foundation Awards evening in Canberra

• NSW 18th October 2011 - Pearcey NSW Award early evening event at Parliament House, Sydney

• South Aust early December 2011 - Joint event with ACS for lunchtime presentation of the 2011 Pearcey SA award

• TAS November 2011 - As part of the National ACS Conference gala dinner, the Pearcey Tasmania Award will be presented

Pearcey Portrait

Thanks to some excellent efforts by our NSW committee, IDG in Sydney have agreed to pass to the Pearcey Foundation a portrait of Dr Pearcey that they commissioned many years ago. Whilst we do not yet have the full history and background to how this painting came to be, we are however taking possession on Wednesday 24 August 2011 at a small ceremony to be held at IDG’s offices in North Sydney. In our next newsletter we will give you all the details plus a photograph of the portrait. However, the national Committee would like your input as to what we do with the portrait. We would appreciate your written suggestions as we feel this is an important piece for posterity. Here are a few ideas we have been discussing:

1. Hang it as part of the CSIRAC exhibit at the Melbourne Museum

2. On a rotational basis (say annually) lend it to NICTA and CSIRO ICT for them to display in one of their prominent conference rooms or boardrooms and the like

3. ‘Donate’ it to the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra (there can be no guarantee that it would be on permanent display of course)

Please let us know what ideas you might have to ensure Dr Pearcey’s legacy is not forgotten.

We look forward to hearing from you or meeting you at the many events now scheduled for 2011. Thanks for your continued support.

Best regards

Wayne Fitzsimmons on behalf of the National Executive Committee The Pearcey Foundation Inc.