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.
Another year of exciting award programs, dynamic thought leadership discussions, a galvanizing Oration and a range of events and
programs to celebrate our Australian ICT heritage and inspire our youth to a future in ICT.
Checkout the calendar on our events page or follow the links below for these flagship events.
This is our 26th 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 170 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.
... help us find the most deserving candidates for the Pearcey
Entrepreneur Award
in your state or territory.
Each year the Pearcey Foundation, through a peer-based selection process, recognises mid-career entrepreneurs who have taken
a risk, are making a difference and are an inspiration to others.
We are looking for those men and women who have created something special with information, computing and communication
technologies. Commercial success is important but, not sufficient to stand out from the crowd.
Criteria explained.
Do you know an individual founder, or team of founders, whom you believe deserve this prestigious recognition??
Your friend, your boss, your partner, your sister, your brother??
This is for everybody, including founders who are migrants, refugees, gender-diverse, indigenous and anyone else who might normally
feel they don't belong. The Pearcey Foundation is about recognising, celebrating, including and championing outstanding individuals
doing remarkable things with technology while inspiring those around them.
The Pearcey Foundation has always championed an inclusive approach to life and to the ICT sector in particular. Our
programmes promote inclusion by reaching across boundaries created by dscriminatory bias and by holding out the ICT heros and
heroines we recognise with our awards as exemplars to our youth and to the broader community.
The 2023 Pearcey National Entrepreneur Award was presented to Didier Elzinga founder and CEO of Culture Amp, by Rick
Harvey, National Awards Director of the Pearcey Foundation at the prestigious 2023 Pearcey National Awards gala dinner, in Sydney.
The 2023 Victorian Pearcey Entrepreneur Award presented to Didier Elzinga, founder and CEO of Culture Amp. Award was
presented at a special dinner in Melbourne, by the Honourable Ben Carroll MP, Minister for Industry & Innovation, State Government of
Victoria. A flagship event of the Victorian Digital Innovation Festival and of the Melbourne Connect Innovation Week
The Pearcey Foundation announced that Richard White and Professor Jean Armstrong were elevated
to the Pearcey Hall of Fame. The presentations were made at the 2023 Pearcey National Awards gala dinner on Monday 30 October 2023
in Sydney.
The Pearcey Hall of Fame is an individual award that recognises a distinguished lifetime of achievement and contribution to the
development and growth of the Australian ICT industry.
The Pearcey Medal, the most prestigious annual individual award in the Australian ICT industry, in its 25th year, was awarded to brothers, Aidan and David Tudehope. David and Aiden founded Macquarie Technology Group in 1992 and have guided their company to become a fully integrated carrier, supplying voice, mobile, data networks & managed hosting solutions to
business & government users in Australia & Asia.
The 2023 Pearcey Oration, The Quantum Revolution: Australia leads the world into the new age of computing – again!!, was presented by Professor Michelle Simmons AO, on Wednesday 6 September 2023. Professor Simmons gave a passionate and
exciting insight into the opportunity for Australia to once again be at the global forefront in manufacturing advanced technology
computers.
Australia 4.0 Communiqué examines the challenges and opportunities for Australian energy networks as the nation transitions to a net zero economy.
Australia 4.0 is a Pearcey Foundation
initiative to spark collaboration between the energy and ICT sectors to help Australia move towards a net zero energy system.
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.
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.
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.
