Welcome to

The Pearcey Foundation

The Pearcey Foundation is a non-profit organisation founded in 1998 in memory of a great Australian ICT pioneer Dr Trevor Pearcey. The Foundation operates broadly across the Australian Information Computing and Telecommunication (ICT) technologies sector, from celebrating achievements through national and state awards, to being involved in debate and public policy on critical national issues such as productivity, the digital economy and national infrastructure.

Discover more Discover more

AUSTRALIA 4.0

The Consumers' Grid

Australia 4.0 is a constructive space for all stakeholders to discuss the challenges, opportunities and solutions for the transition of Australia to a Net Zero energy system.
Review 2025 Debates
Review 2025 Debates

Downloads:

2024 Communiqué ........... 2025 Communiqué ............. White Paper

Download Download Download Download Download Download

This is our 27^th year of awards, focussed exclusively on outstanding individuals drawn from across our vast geography.

We present 12 awards each year, and have done so for a long time - recognising over 245 Australian ICT luminaries and entrepreneurs, as highlighted on this website.

Latest News

Jun 27, 2023

Australia 4.0 Session # 6 - Critical Digital Technologies

Join us for the 6th and final session in this series of national discussions with leading experts to explore the challenges and opportunities for the ICT sector in the transformation of our electricity system to Australia Net Zero.

Read More Read More

Jun 27, 2023

Australia 4.0 Session # 5 - Consumer Grid

Join us for the 5th in this series of national discussions with leading experts to explore the challenges and opportunities for the ICT sector in the transformation of our electricity system to Australia Net Zero.

Read More Read More

Jun 27, 2023

Australia 4.0 Session # 4 - Energy Resilience

Join us for the 4th in this series of national discussions with leading experts to explore the challenges and opportunities for the ICT sector in the transformation of our electricity system to Australia Net Zero.

Read More Read More

Jun 27, 2023

Australia 4.0 Session # 3 - Network Intelligence

Join us for the 3rd in this series of national discussions with leading experts to explore the challenges and opportunities for the ICT sector in the transformation of our electricity system to Australia Net Zero.

Read More Read More

Jun 26, 2023

Australia 4.0 Session # 2 - Future Grid

Join us for the 2nd in this series of national discussions with leading experts to explore the challenges and opportunities for the ICT sector in the transformation of our electricity system to Australia Net Zero.

Read More Read More

Jun 20, 2023

Australia 4.0 Session #1

Join us for the first in this series of national discussions with leading experts to explore the challenges and opportunities for the ICT sector in the transformation of our electricity system to Australia Net Zero

Read More Read More

Jun 16, 2023

Vale Max Burnet OAM (1941-2023)

Max was a graduate of the University of Melbourne and spent four years at Weapons Research Establishment in Salisbury (South Australia) before returning to Melbourne to start Digital Equipment’s Australian operations in 1967. Max was pioneer in the recognition and retention of our computing heritage and an authority on early Australian-made computers.

Read More Read More

Jun 16, 2023

Australia 4.0 - path to Net Zero

Australia 4.0 is a Pearcey Foundation thought leadership initiative to identify and discuss the challenges and opportunities of a digital and data enabled transformation of the electricity sector to Australia Net Zero.

Read More Read More

Apr 20, 2023

Vale Brian Finn AO - 1937-2023

One of Australia’s outstanding ICT pioneers, Brian Finn passed this week.

Read More Read More

Nov 13, 2022

Our Latest IT Industry Greats: Pearcey Foundation Presents its 2022 National Awards

John de Margheriti awarded the 2022 Pearcey Medal; Len Rust and Bevan Slattery inducted into the Pearcey Hall of Fame; Dr Mark Englund receives National Entrepreneur Award

Read More Read More

Nov 11, 2022

2022 Pearcey Medal

The 2022 Pearcey Medal was presented to John De Margheriti, widely seen as a founding 'father' of Australia's video games industry. The presentation was made in Hobart by Hon Madeleine Ogilvie MP, Tasmanian Minister for Science and Technology at a gala dinner held in conjunction with the Australian Computer Society (ACS) and TasICT.

Read More Read More

Nov 11, 2022

From ‘Tinkering’ on the Farm to Innovative Custom Drone Solutions: Tasmanian Entrepreneur Andrew Davies Recognised by Pearcey

The Pearcey Foundation today announced Andrew Davies, founder and CEO of Taz Drone Solutions, as the recipient of the 2022 Tasmanian Pearcey Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Read More Read More

Nov 11, 2022

2022 Pearcey Hall of Fame

The Pearcey Foundation announced that John De Margheriti, Len Rust and Beven Slattery were elevated to the Pearcey Hall of Fame. The presentations were made as part of the 2022 Pearcey National Awards at a gala dinner held in conjunction with the Australian Computer Society (ACS) and TasICT in Hobart.

Read More Read More

Nov 11, 2022

2022 Pearcey Entrepreneur Award

The 2022 Pearcey National Entrepreneur Award was presented to Dr. Mark Englund founder and CEO of FiberSense, by Hon Madeleine Ogilvie MP, Minister for Science and Technology. The award was presented in Hobart as part of the prestigious 2022 Pearcey National Awards held in conjunction with the Australian Computer Society (ACS) and TasICT.

Read More Read More

Nov 11, 2022

2022 Tas Award

The Tasmanian Pearcey Entrepreneur for 2022 was presented to Andrew Davies, founder and CEO of Taz Drone Solutions, by Hon Madeleine Ogilvie MP, Minister for Science and Technology. The presentation was part of the Pearcey Foundation's National Event at the TasICT Conference Gala Dinner on the evening of Friday November 11^th at the C3 Convention Center in Hobart.

Read More Read More

Nov 4, 2022

It is Rocket Science: Co-founder of Fleet Space Technologies Flavia Tata Nardini Recognised by Pearcey Foundation

The Pearcey Foundation today announced co-founder and CEO of Fleet Space Technologies, Flavia Tata Nardini, as the recipient of the 2022 South Australian Pearcey Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Read More Read More

Nov 4, 2022

2022 SA Award

The 2022 SA Pearcey Entrepreneur was presented to Flavia Tata Nadini, CEO and Co-Founder, Fleet Space Technologies. The presentation was made by Mohann Koo at a special event at the Stone and Chalk Startup and Scaleup Hub.

Read More Read More

Oct 31, 2022

2022 NSW Award

The 2022 NSW Pearcey Entrepreneur of the Year award was presented to Dr. Mark Englund of FiberSense, by David Thodey, AO, on October 31 at the Sydney Startup Hub. Founded in 2015, FiberSense provides SONAR like sensing capabilities over optical fiber telecoms cables, providing awareness of objects and events near the fibre cable infrastructure. The service is being taken up by the world’s most valuable companies including Amazon, Google and Meta..

Read More Read More

Oct 30, 2022

Senses Working Overtime: Optical Fibre Innovator Dr Mark Englund Receives 2022 NSW Pearcey Entrepreneur of the Year Award

The Pearcey Foundation today announced founder and CEO of FiberSense, Dr Mark Englund, as the recipient of the 2022 NSW Pearcey Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Read More Read More

Oct 18, 2022

2022 Qld Award

The 2022 Queensland Pearcey Entrepreneur Award was presented jointly to Rebecca McDonald, founder and CEO of Library for All, and Sarah-Jane Peterschlingmann, managing director and owner of ATech. The awards were presented in Brisbane by Jill Martin, Director of Start Up & Scale Up Programs, Department of Tourism, Innovation and Sport at an event hosted by Monica Bradley.

Read More Read More

Oct 18, 2022

2022 Queensland Pearcey ICT Entrepreneur Award Recognises Two Award-winning Female Entrepreneurs

The Pearcey Foundation today announced Rebecca McDonald, founder and CEO of Library for All, and Sarah-Jane Peterschlingmann, managing director and owner of ATech, as joint recipients of the 2022 Queensland ICT Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Read More Read More

Oct 17, 2022

Delivering More than the Sum of its Parts: Instaclustr co-founders receive 2022 ACT Chief Minister's Pearcey Entrepreneur Award

The Pearcey Foundation today announced Ben Bromhead and Adam Zegelin (the technical inspiration behind Instaclustr) as this year’s recipients of the ACT Chief Minister’s Pearcey Entrepreneur Award.

Read More Read More

Oct 17, 2022

2022 ACT Pearcey Award

At a special Round Table event, the Chief Minister, with former Senator Kate Lundy announced the winners of the ACT Chief Minister Pearcey Award were Adam Zegelin and Ben Bromhead, the technical inspiration behind Instaclustr. Instaclustr helps organisations deliver applications at scale by operating and supporting their data infrastructure through its SaaS platform for open source technologies.

Read More Read More

Sep 21, 2022

2022 Pearcey Oration

The 2022 Pearcey Oration, "From Pearcey to Quantum", was given by the Honourable Ed Husic MP, Federal Minister for Industry and Science in Melbourne on Wednesday, 21 September 2022. Ed Husic gave a passionate Australian perspective of digital technologies past, present and future.

Read More Read More

Sep 21, 2022

Technology Achievement Inspired by the Arts: Arcitecta’s Jason Lohrey receives the 2022 Pearcey Victorian Entrepreneur Award

The Pearcey Foundation today announced Jason Lohrey, founder and CEO of Arcitecta, as the recipient of the 2022 Pearcey Victorian Entrepreneur Award. The award was presented at an event in Melbourne that also featured the 2022 Pearcey Oration, which was given by The Honourable Ed Husic MP, Federal Minister for Industry and Science.

Read More Read More

Sep 21, 2022

2022 Vic Pearcey Award

The 2022 Victorian Pearcey Entrepreneur Award was presented to Jason Lohrey, founder and CEO/CTO of Arcitecta. The award was presented at a special dinner in Melbourne by Kathy Coultas, Director of Technology & Innovation, Department of Economic Development, State Government of Victoria.

Read More Read More

Sep 14, 2022

Federal Minister for Industry and Science, Ed Husic to Give the 2022 Pearcey Oration

The Pearcey Foundation has announced that this year’s Pearcey Oration will be given by The Honourable Ed Husic MP, Federal Minister for Industry and Science. The Oration will feature at a dinner in Melbourne on Wednesday, 21 September 2022 held with the support of Digital Innovation Futures Victoria, an initiative of the State Government of Victoria. The Pearcey Foundation Victorian Entrepreneur of the Year will also be presented at the event.

Read More Read More

Aug 26, 2022

Global Drone Solutions’ Mahmood Hussein ‘Top Gun’ in Western Australian Pearcey Awards

The Pearcey Foundation today announced Mahmood Hussein, founder and CEO of Global Drone Solutions, as the recipient of the 2022 Western Australian Pearcey Entrepreneur of the Year Award. The award was presented as part of the 31^st annual WAITTA INCITE Awards, Western Australia’s longest running Tech Awards program.

Read More Read More

Aug 12, 2022

2022 WA Award

The 2022 WA Pearcey Entrepreneur Award recipient is Mahmood Hussein, Founder and CEO Global Drone Solutions (GDS). The Pearcey Award was part of the 31st WAITTA Incite Awards on Friday 12 August 2022.

Read More Read More

Jun 3, 2022

Opening of Graeme Philipson Library

On June 3, 2022, the Graeme Philipson History of Computing Library was launched. The keynote was given by Dr Peter Thorne AM, Chair of the Heritage Committee project run by the Pearcey Foundation.

Read More Read More

May 21, 2022

Predictions for 2022 and Beyond

Predictions for the ICT industry for 2022, as well as more general observations about how ICT brings challenges and opportunities into so many aspects of our society, politics, business, economics and our future.

Read More Read More

Feb 23, 2022

2022 Riding the Digital Wave Summit

A national landmark event celebrating the 70th anniversary of the first computer conference held in Australia! The Riding the Digital Wave Summit takes us back to the birth of computer science as a discipline and profession in its own right, looking at some of the early developments and where they have led us today. How has digital technology influenced our every day life and where will it take us in the future?

Read More Read More

Dec 31, 2021

Summary of Public Policy Contributions

The Pearcey Foundation is actively involved in contributing to thought leadership in ICT issues e.g. economic studies, digital economy benefits.

Read More Read More

Dec 27, 2021

Historical Papers

This section contains a collection of papers and notes about Australian ICT history.

Dec 23, 2021

CSIRAC - Among the First Electronic Stored Program Computers

In historical terms, CSIR Mk1/CSIRAC was one of the first stored program, electronic, computers.

Prior to 1948 various electromechanical machines (non-electronic computers) were built in USA and Germany. Early electronic, but not stored program machines, were ENIAC (USA) and numerous Colossuses (Colossi?) at Bletchley Park (UK).

Read More Read More

Nov 29, 2021

Early Australian Internet

In 1986, a year after the Internet domain name system was deployed, Australia's.au country code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD) came into being at the approval of the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute (performing IANA's function at the time).

Read More Read More

Nov 24, 2021

2021 Pearcey Medal

David Thodey AO, was presented the prestigious Pearcey Medal as part of the 2021 Pearcey National Awards. The Pearcey Medal recognises a distinguished lifetime achievement and contribution to the development and growth of the ICT industry in Australia.

Read More Read More

Nov 24, 2021

2021 Pearcey Hall of Fame

David Thodey AO, Judy Hammond and Alan Noble were elevated to the Pearcey Hall of Fame at the annual Pearcey National Awards event held on Wednesday 24^th November 2021 during a virtual presentation held via Zoom.

Read More Read More

Nov 24, 2021

2021 Pearcey Entrepreneur Award

The 2021 Pearcey National Entrepreneur Award was presented to the co-founder and CTO of DTEX Systems Mohan Koo by South Australian Premier Steven Marshall. The presentation was broadcast live on a national Zoom call, as part of the Pearcey Foundation's National Awards event.

Read More Read More

Nov 15, 2021

2021 SA Award

The 2021 Pearcey Entrepreneur Award was presented to Mohan Koo, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of world leading cybersecurity provider DTEX Systems. The Award was presented at a small ceremony on 15 November 2021 at Lot 14 in Adelaide, attended by Pearcey Committee members, previous Pearcey Entrepreneur Awardeees, and special guests Andrew Nunn, SA Chief Entrepreneur and Alan Noble, ex CTO, Google.

Read More Read More

Nov 12, 2021

2021 Tas Award

Nina McMahon, co-founder and CEO of PopUp WiFi was the recipient of the 2021 Tasmanian Pearcey Entrepreneur of the Year Award. This year's award was presented on 12 November in Hobart during the gala industry dinner following TasICT's Annual Conference and in collaboration with the Tasmanian Branch of ACS as well as TasICT.

Read More Read More

Oct 14, 2021

2021 NSW Award

The NSW Entrepreneur of the Year was awarded to brother and sister team Jordan O'Reilly and Laura O'Reilly OAM. The presentation was held online on October 14, as part of Spark Festival. Jordan and Laura have cofounded both not-for-profit and profit-for-purpose businesses helping people with disabilities and their families manage their needs and support services. Over the last ten years, they have helped hundreds of thousands of people and proven that for-purpose business can have significant social impact.

Read More Read More

Oct 12, 2021

Her Story: Partnerships between Humans and Machines

Pearcey Conversations online seminar 12 October 2021 celebrated Ada Lovelace Day with a look at some remarkable achievements that women have made in STEM.

Read More Read More

Oct 6, 2021

2021 Qld Award

Brisbane, Australia - 6 October 2021 - The Pearcey Foundation today announced Michael Holmstrom, CEO and co-founder of STEM Punks as this year's recipient of the Queensland Pearcey ICT Entrepreneur Award.

Read More Read More

Sep 28, 2021

2021 ACT Award

Canberra 28 Sep 2021: The Pearcey Foundation today announced Daniel Shaddock, founder and CEO of Liquid Instruments as this year's recipient of the ACT Chief Minister's Pearcey Entrepreneur Award. The award was presented by Andrew Barr, ACT Chief Minister at the Annual ACT Pearcey Round Table (held virtually this year).

Read More Read More

Sep 12, 2021

Vale Clive Finkelstein

One of Australia's foremost computer scientists passed away peacefully in Perth on the 12^th September 2021. Recognised for his work in defining Information Engineering, when he presented the concept at the 1980 IFIPS conference in Melbourne. Clive was elevated to the Pearcey Hall of Fame in 2008 at a memorable ceremony in Sydney.

Read More Read More

Sep 1, 2021

2021 Vic Award

The 2021 Victorian Pearcey Entrepreneur Award was presented to Bronwyn Le Grice, founder and CEO of ANDHealth. The award, in its 23^rd year, was presented by the Honourable Mr Danny Pearson MLA, Assistant Treasurer, Minister for Regulatory Reform, Government Services and Creative Industries.

Read More Read More

Sep 1, 2021

2021 Pearcey Oration

The 2021 Pearcey Oration "Digital Transformation - Australia as a World Leader" was given by Jeremy Hirschhorn, ATO Second Commissioner on Wednesday 1 September 2021 and gave an insight into the most digitised revenue agency on the planet, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

Read More Read More

Aug 30, 2021

Vale Prof. Reg Coutts

Reg Coutts, 2018 Pearcey Hall of Fame, was an ebullient character, well known in telecommunications and ICT circles, always self-deprecating, always positive and constructive about his colleagues. Reg was an effective, well-liked and respected leader in Australian ICT, whose sense of humour was infectious. Reg will be missed by many Australians - he made a real contribution to our great nation.

Read More Read More

Aug 25, 2021

2021 The Future of Work Roundtable

The DIF2021 Roundtable covered an in-depth dialogue around the Future of Work, starting with the recently published report from Swinburne University of Technology’s Centre for the New Workforce "National Survey Report: Peak Human Workplace, Innovation in the unprecedented era".

Read More Read More

Aug 3, 2021

Charlie Day

Australians have all too often seen themselves as observers rather than participants in the digital revolution, but that does not do justice to our history. The Pearcey Foundation plays a very important role in highlighting the real contributions Australians have made in the past, and in so doing will help inspire the next generation of Australian digital innovators.

Awards

The Pearcey Foundation's annual awards recognise and celebrate outstanding individuals in Australian ICT.

National Awards • State Awards • Nominations

The Heritage Project

The Pearcey Foundation intends to extend the Heritage Project well beyond Phase One (the book) – with the aim to become ‘the’ central repository – hosting a ‘virtual museum’ of Australia’s computing artefacts, documents and oral histories from key players.

The Project

Kind Words

Charlie Day
Former CEO, Innovation and Science Australia

The Pearcey Foundation’s project to document Australia’s achievements in the computer age is a critically important endeavour. A central repository, that documents the central role of our universities and CSIRO and the individual contributions of academics and entrepreneurs, will be an essential resource for future policy makers and for students, research workers and entrepreneurs.

Alex Zelinsky AO
Vice-Chancellor and President, University of Newcastle

Australians are a nation of storytellers. Stories make us laugh and they make us cry, they remind us who we are and they inspire us, and let us celebrate our successes and failures. Australia has much to celebrate when it comes to the digital age, from pioneering work in computer science through to innovative cloud services. The Pearcey Foundation Heritage Project will be an inspiration to future generations of Australians.

Founder
Australian Ocean Lab and Former Engineering Director, Google Australia

Initiatives

The Pearcey Foundation is actively involved in many initiatives to help promote and accelerate the Australian ICT industry.

Thought Leadership • Australia 3.0 • Australia 4.0 • ICT Heritage • Pearcey Institute

Discover more Discover more

In memory of

Dr Trevor Pearcey

The Pearcey Foundation Inc. was established in 1998 to raise the profile of the Australian Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Industry and profession. It was created in the memory of one of the greatest pioneers of the Australian ICT industry, Dr Trevor Pearcey.