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 Communication Technologies (ICT) 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.

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Pearcey 2023

Event planned for Sydney on October 31.

State Awards

ACT	Early Sep	Includes a roundtable
NSW	Oct 4	Sydney Startup Hub
Qld	Oct 24	Victoria Park Golf
SA	October	Lot 14
Tas	Nov 10	At Tas ICT Conference
Vic	End of Aug	With Pearcey Oration
WA	4 Aug	Westin

This is our 25^th year of awards, focussed exclusively on outstanding individuals drawn from across our vast geography.

We present 11 awards each year and have done so for a long time - recognising over 150 Australian ICT luminaries and entrepreneurs, as highlighted on this website.

Heritage Projects - many activities including publication of an Australian IT history book, preservation of museums, and submission of an IEEE milestone for CSIRAC.

Australia 4.0 - Thought leadership in the transition to green energy. Various roundtables, webcasts, and papers being worked on.

Pearcey Oration - being planned for late August as part of the Victorian Government's Digital Innovation Festival.

Summary of Pearcey 2022

The National Awards were held on 11 Nov 2022 in Hobart in conjunction with ACS Tasmania and TasICT, at the C3 Convention Centre, Hobart.

The 2022 Pearcey Medal was presented to John De Margheriti, widely seen as a founding 'father' of Australia's video games industry.

The 2022 Pearcey Hall of Fame inductees were John De Margheriti, Len Rust and Beven Slattery.

The 2022 Pearcey Entrepreneur Award was presented to Dr Mark Englund, founder and CEO of FibreSense.

The Pearcey State Awards recognise outstanding entrepreneurs in ICT within each Australian State who have "taken a risk, made a difference and are an inspiration." The Pearcey Foundation is proud to have made the following awards:

*State*	*Award*	*Recipient(s)*
ACT	2022 ACT Award	Ben Bromhead and Adam Zegelin, co-founders of Instaclustr
NSW	2022 NSW Award	Dr Mark Englund, founder and CEO at FiberSense
Qld	2022 Qld Award	Rebecca McDonald, founder and CEO of Library for All Sarah-Jane Peterschlingmann, founder and Managing Director of ATech
SA	2022 SA Award	Flavia Tata Nardini, co-founder and CEO of Fleet Space Technologies
Tas	2022 Tas Award	Andrew Davies, founder and CEO of Taz Drone Solutions
Vic	2022 Vic Award	Jason Lohrey, founder and CEO of Arcitecta
WA	2022 WA Award	Mahmood Hussein, founder and CEO of Global Drone Solutions

The 2022 Pearcey Oration "From Pearcey to Quantum" was given by the Honourable Ed Husic MP, Federal Minister for Industry and Science.

The Pearcey Oration, along with the presentation of the 2022 Victorian Pearcey Entrepreneur Award, was held at a sit-down dinner at Melbourne Connect on Wednesday, 21 September 2022.

Ed Husic gave a passionate Australian perspective of digital technologies past, present and future.

Latest News

Apr 20, 2023

Vale Brian Finn AO - 1937-2023

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

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

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.

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

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.

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 • ICT Heritage • Pearcey Institute

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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.