2002 winners
(Please note: This is archival information and may not reflect current profiles)
Robert Bird
Faculty of Built Environment & Engineering Award Winner
Prominent Brisbane structural engineer and Chairman of Robert Bird and Partners Pty Ltd, Robert Bird has been associated with numerous large-scale projects that have had an impact on the skyline of South East Queensland. Cathedral Square, Admiralty and Dockside Towers, Silverpoint and Rivage Royale on the Gold Coast, and ANZ Stadium are examples of projects realised under his leadership and direction. In 2000, his firm's engineering excellence was recognised when it was awarded the 2000 AISC Queensland Steel Engineering Award for the Gabba Stage four and five development. The firm is currently working on the Sydney 2000 Airport, Woolloomooloo Wharf redevelopment and Walsh Bay Wharf restoration in Sydney, and the Melbourne Docklands redevelopment. Established in 1982, the firm is now located on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Malaysia, Abu Dhabi and London.
Robert's contribution to the development of innovative and cost saving construction techniques is significant, in particular, the use of concrete filled steel tubes as permanent basement columns in top down construction; simultaneous construction of basements with towers, and flatplate construction which reduces floor to floor height and therefore the cost of mechanical services. Robert has also been involved in developing solutions for complex below ground and sea level construction works involved in wharf reconstruction.
Robert is involved with the Young Presidents Organisation (Queensland) and is a director of Pacific Sports Entertainment Ltd (owners of the Brisbane Broncos). A keen sailor of some 30 years experience, he is also co-owner of the highly successful maxi yacht Bobsled. Robert has lectured part-time in QUT's School of Civil Engineering for the past 6 years.
Carolyn Barker
Faculty of Business Award Winner
Carolyn Barker began her career as a journalist and newsreader and later owned and operated two significant small to medium enterprises in the business services industry. Carolyn graduated from QIT in 1980 with a Bachelor of Business (Management) majoring in Marketing and Communications. Since then she has gained a Master of Business Administration and is currently undertaking a Master of Electronic Business. For the past 12 years, Carolyn has worked in corporate life, utilising her skills in strategic planning, change management, leadership development and corporate governance, in executive management roles within the private and public sectors. She has repositioned a number of organisations to better handle changing business environments and made a considerable, positive impact on the financial positions of many organisations with which she has been involved.
Since 1997, Carolyn has been the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Institute of Management (AIM) for Queensland and the Northern Territory, and has made a significant contribution to the education, development and recognition of the management profession in Australia. She is Managing Director of TheCyberInstitute Pty Ltd, the Institute's international online learning company and Managing Editor of Management Today, Australia's only specialist magazine for managers and Series Editor of the Management Today book series in collaboration with McGraw-Hill. Carolyn has been responsible for restructuring the Institute, which has subsequently entered a phase of considerable growth.
Carolyn's interest in the arts led to her membership of several arts boards where she felt she could contribute to developing leadership and governance in this sector. She is Chair of Queensland Orchestras Pty Ltd and the QUT Brisbane Graduate School of Management and is a board member of Brisbane Powerhouse, the Brisbane City Council Business Advisory Board, PQ Lifestyles Pty Ltd, the Surf Life Saving Foundation (Queensland) and the National Board of the Australian Institute of Management. Carolyn is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management (QLD and NT).
Venero Armanno
Creative Industries Faculty Award Winner
The author of several novels, screenplays, short stories and fiction for young adults, Venero Armanno is recognised as one of Australia's leading writers and is internationally acclaimed for his novels. Since graduating from QUT in 1999 with a Master of Arts (Research) in creative writing, Venero has achieved an international stage in his career with the publication of two further novels, Firehead and The Volcano and is currently writing the screenplay for Firehead.
Venero has done much to advance the internationalisation of Australian writing, travelling extensively in Europe and North America to promote his own work and that of other local writers. In 1997, he also completed a Scholarship-funded, four month writer-in-residency at Cit?? International des Arts, Paris. At the local level, Venero has helped to develop a viable pool of creative writing talent in South East Queensland by raising the profile of Queensland writing, encouraging government and international publisher investment, and mentoring young writers through workshops, high school programs and the Queensland Writers Centre.
During the 1990s, the quality of Venero's work was recognised with the award in 1992 of a Varuna Writer's Fellowship, followed in 1994 with an Australia Council Literature Board Fellowship. During this time, Venero's work was also twice nominated for the prestigious Miles Franklin Award, highly commended in the Australian/Vogel Literary Award and runner-up in the Steele Rudd Award. In May 2002 he was nominated for a Commonwealth Medal for Services to Australia. Venero is currently enrolled in the PhD program at QUT, the first prominent Australian author to undertake a PhD in creative writing.
Jane Andersen
Faculty of Education Award Winner
Having trained in Early Childhood, Special Education and Primary / Secondary Education at QUT's predecessor institutions, Jane Andersen has worked in education, health, corrective services and child protection, devoting her career to assisting children and adults with special needs to live more fulfilling lives. Among her many achievements in these areas, Jane was responsible for the development and implementation of a holistic and interdisciplinary approach to the management of intellectually and physically handicapped people, which represented a significant departure from attitudes and practices of the time. Programs and therapies introduced by Jane have enabled physically handicapped adults to make the transition from nursing homes to independent living in the community.
Within the prison system, new rehabilitation, education and management programs implemented by Jane were subsequently adopted by all prisons in Queensland. Her innovative work in the area of prisoner rehabilitation led to increased literacy among inmates and their commitment to education programs not previously considered accessible, including university study.
Jane has also been a tireless advocate for the rights of children. As Chief Executive Officer of the Abused Child Trust, Jane has worked to position the Trust as the peak body for child protection services in Queensland, encouraging cooperation between the various agencies and bodies working for child protection, and raising community awareness of child abuse. Jane is also the National Director of the Kids First Foundation, which raises funds to conduct research into child abuse and its long term cost to society, and for treatment and prevention activities. She has made a significant contribution to the financial viability and growth of these organisations, by securing government funding, the patronage of large public corporations, and through public fundraising activities. Jane is also a member of the Child Protection Advisory Council to the Queensland State Government.
John Mendoza
Faculty of Health
Excellence in Promoting Creativity/Innovation Award Winner
As Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Sports Drug Agency (ASDA), John Mendoza has been a key player in Australia's contribution to the growing international effort against doping in sport. He has made a significant contribution to the national and international debate on drugs and sport, an issue that has transcended the athletes and is part of an on-going debate in the community about the use of drugs to enhance performance.
John played a pivotal role in staging the most effective anti-doping program at an Olympic Games. The Sydney Games saw five firsts for anti-doping procedure - a worldwide out-of-competition testing program in the lead-up to the Games; the introduction of blood testing for the banned substance EPO; pre-Games testing in conjunction with the IOC; a fully documented and transparent results management process; and an independent observer team to ensure probity. John used the success of ASDA's role in the Games to position the agency as a world leader in the application of social and behavioural approaches and new technology to the management of anti-doping programs. In 2000, John was instrumental in securing for ASDA, the contract for the provision of drug testing services to the newly formed World Anti-Doping Agency, and ASDA continues to plan and coordinate testing missions around the world on athletes from nearly one hundred countries.
John trained initially as a teacher of Health and Physical Education. He holds three education qualifications from the BCAE and QUT and is presently completing a Master of Education (Human Resource Studies / Adult Education). John developed an interest in Drug and Alcohol Education while teaching, rising to Director of Education with the Drug and Alcohol Services Council of South Australia. Later, John worked in human resources management in public institutions, and lectured in the School of Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations, and in the School of Public Health at QUT. He has initiated many successful programs related to occupational health and safety, health promotion, and the prevention of injury, alcohol and drug abuse. His wealth of experience in sports education, health, industrial relations and organisational development, makes him uniquely qualified for his current role.
John has served on numerous inter-government committees and working parties, including three years as a member of the Steering Committee for the National Campaign Against Drug Abuse. He currently chairs the World Anti-Doping Agency and International Anti-Doping Arrangement Taskforce on the Development of an International Standard for Doping Control.
Gary Morgan
Faculty of Information Technology Award Winner
With twenty-five years of experience, Gary Morgan is an entrepreneurial veteran of the information technology industry. He is currently the Chief Executive Officer and Director of Wedgetail Communications Pty Ltd, a commercialisation venture in which world-class security technology developed over a five year period by the CRC for Distributed Systems Technology (DSTC), is taken to a worldwide market. Gary has played an important role in guiding this high-tech start-up company and overseeing the international adoption of its technology. The company has already had outstanding successes in licensing its technology to large international players such as Sony Corporation, which will be using Wedgetail technology as a key element for its interactive Digital TV products. By commercialising the products of research and taking them to a worldwide market, Wedgetail has become an exemplar of the CRC program.
Gary obtained a Graduate Diploma in Commercial Computing in 1990 and a Master of Business Administration (International) in 1999 from QUT, and also holds a Bachelor of Commerce. He has held senior management and marketing roles for companies such as Oracle Systems, Netbridge Communications and Compaq Computer. He has played an important part in setting the "Smart State" initiatives and strategy of the current State government. In 1999, Gary was one of the people consulted by the Queensland Government during the development of the incubator program then being considered. He is a founding member of the Queensland e-security cluster, a joint initiative of the State Government and private industry. The cluster is the largest e-security community outside of the USA and indicative of Queensland's leadership role in developing technology for electronic commerce. Gary is also a member of the ANZA Technology Network, a non-profit professional business network designed to bring together Australian, NZ and US technology companies and executives.
Dr Ken Levy, RFD
Faculty of Law Award Winner
Established expert in criminal psychology and delinquency, Dr Ken Levy has forged an impressive thirty-five year public service career. Ken is Director-General of the Department of Justice and Attorney-General, and Barrister-at-Law of both the Supreme Court of Queensland and the High Court of Australia. His sustained interest in four diverse disciplines - law, business, criminology and psychology - has brought a unique expertise in justice and its management to the profession.
Ken began his public service career in 1967, served in senior appointments within the Department of Justice and the Department of the Attorney-General from 1981, and was appointed to his present position in 2000. Obtaining a Bachelor of Laws from QIT in 1986, he went on to collect a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, a Bachelor of Commerce and a PhD in criminology and psychology. Awarded a British Council Chevening Scholarship in 1994, which he was unable to undertake, Ken embarked on studies a year later as a Fulbright Scholar with the Dept of Criminology, Law and Society, School of Social Ecology, at the University of California, Irvine. A keen criminology researcher, Ken has energetically encouraged the diversion of offenders from the formal criminal justice system by focussing on their psychological functioning and propensity for recidivism. In addition to his Special Membership of the Bar Association of Queensland, Ken is also a Member of the College of Forensic Psychologists of the Australian Psychological Society, a Member of the American Psychological Association and Fellow of Chartered Professional Accountants Australia.
Ken has also been an Army Reservist for 32 years rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He utilised his professional knowledge in this role, teaching military law and the law of armed conflict to Army officers. In 1990 Ken's military service was recognised with a Reserve Force Decoration (RFD), two clasps being added to the decoration. Further recognition was made in 1992 with a Commander 1 Training Group Certificate of Recognition for Meritorious Service. Ken has served on fourteen state or national boards and committees since 1990. Currently he is Vice-President (Corporate Governance) of the National Council of CPA Australia, Member of the Board of Management of the Australian Institute of Criminology, and Member of the Criminology Research Council.
Geoff Mitchell, AO
Chancellor's Outstanding Alumnus
Faculty of Science Award Winner
Geoff Mitchell is recognised as an outstanding leader in the Queensland sugar industry, which is Australia's second largest crop-based export, receiving one billion dollars in overseas earnings per annum, employing 18,000 people and supporting many regional communities and businesses. Graduating in 1967 with a Diploma in Industrial Chemistry from the Central Technical College, Geoff has accumulated forty years of experience in the sugar industry. In 1988, he was appointed Managing Director of Bundaberg Sugar Limited, and under his leadership, the company has been an innovator in agronomic practices, cane harvesting, factory control, refining techniques and sugar transport. The only person at a senior level to have been actively involved in all major facets of sugar production from growing, milling and refining to marketing and research, Geoff has developed clear perspectives and an industry-wide approach to forward planning. His understanding of industry issues has been an important influence on the industry's ability to adapt to change.
Geoff has been actively involved in setting sugar research priorities as a Director of the CRC for Sustainable Sugar Production and the Sugar Research & Development Corporation. Geoff has held senior positions on numerous associations, boards and committees representing the sugar industry and mill owners and is currently President of the Australian Sugar Milling Association (QLD), Chairman of the Australian Sugar Milling Council Pty Ltd, a member of the Union of Employers and the Sugar Industry Development Advisory Council. Geoff was also the Non-Government Organisation representative at the World Trade Organisation Round in Seattle.
Between 1993 and 1998, Geoff served as Board Member of the Queensland Sugar Corporation (QSC) which has responsibility for marketing five million tonnes of sugar annually with a value of one and a half billion dollars, and has an important policy role in developing markets and obtaining value for growers and millers. In 1998 and 1999, as a member of the Chairman's Group, he oversaw the privatisation of the QSC into Queensland Sugar Limited, an entity wholly owned by growers and millers. Geoff has also served on the Bundaberg Bulk Sugar Terminal Organisation, which has responsibility for four hundred million dollars in bulk sugar storage and shipping infrastructure at seven Queensland ports, which is funded and owned by growers and millers.
Individually and through his company, Geoff has also supported and taken a keen personal interest in the cultural, health, educational and sporting life of the community, supporting organisations such as the Royal Brisbane Hospital Research Foundation, Australian Paralympic Federation, State Library of Queensland Foundation, the Queensland Opera and the Queensland Youth Orchestra.
In recognition of his service to the Australian Sugar industry and the Queensland community, Geoff was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2002.
Jennie Peut
QUT Carseldine Award Winner
Following graduation from QUT in 1997 with a Bachelor of Social Science, Jennie Peut has worked in the field of Human Services. She is State Manager of Queensland Aged and Disability Advocacy Incorporated, a state-wide advocacy service for frail older people and young people with disabilities living in residential aged care facilities or receiving community aged care services in their own homes. Over the past three years, Jennie has achieved increased funding and access to the agency's services for a broad client group across Queensland. She has initiated partnerships between key stakeholders in the aged care sector, to develop and provide educational programs and is recognised for her efforts in gaining cooperation within the industry for the development of positive relations between people receiving aged care services and aged care providers.
Jennie contributes regularly to discourse on aged care issues, legislation and policy direction, presenting at conferences and guest lecturing at QUT, Griffith University, and TAFE Colleges throughout Queensland. She provides a consumer perspective to a number of national and state government and provider groups, and is currently a member of the national Consumer Working Group (a sub-committee of the Aged Care Working Group of the Minister for Ageing), the national Entry Procedures Reference Group of the Dept of Health and Ageing, the Queensland Aged Care Network, and the Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency Industry Liaison Group. Committed to developing a supportive national network of aged care advocates, Jennie initiated and coordinated the National Advocacy Workshop conducted in Brisbane in 2001, which resulted in the development of an ongoing intranet forum for advocacy practice.
Jennie participates on research project reference groups and her agency manages projects including a national project to evaluate the provision of advocacy support to rural and remote areas, and a state wide project to develop culturally appropriate models for providing advocacy support to indigenous communities. The agency will soon be managing a national project to develop information about rights and advocacy in plain English with particular emphasis on video format for indigenous communities.
Chris Layton
QUT Alumni Young Achiever Award Winner
Outstanding optometry graduate Chris Layton, obtained his Bachelor of Applied Science (Optometry) (Hons 1) in 1998, having won a number of academic prizes and scholarships and a University Medal. Chris's vision is to restore sight to the world's blind and to make a difference in the lives of as many people as possible. Chris is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery at the University of Queensland. Earlier this year, Chris was made a Rhodes Scholar, only the third QUT graduate and the only optometry graduate in the world to receive this accolade. His PhD studies at the University of Oxford will focus on a highly innovative and significant ophthalmology project concerning retinal prostheses, which is said to be the most complicated and dramatic marriage of medicine, physiology and engineering ever attempted. The study will be part of long-term research into ways of making artificial retinas for people who are already blind due to diseases such as glaucoma.
As well as an outstanding academic record, Chris also has an excellent history of sporting performance and community service. He has actively contributed to student and professional committees at QUT, University of Queensland and the Princess Alexandra Hospital. He has excelled in several sports, most notably volleyball, which he has played at both state and national representative levels. He was selected in the squad for the World Student Games in Sicily in 1998, and in the Queensland Men's Volleyball Team that won a gold medal at the National Volleyball Championships.
Chris has been a leader in a number of community service ventures that sprang from his professional commitment and entrepreneurial acumen. Being cognisant of the fact that three quarters of the world's three hundred million blind people are forced to suffer loss of vision because they can't afford to buy spectacles, Chris became a driving force behind the program Vision Care Nepal, which addresses the serious issue of visual impairment in that country. Each expedition to Nepal provides eye care which would otherwise cost the Nepalese Government $400,000 to provide. The expeditions provide Australian optometrists and technicians, and thousands of donated spectacles to people in need. Chris hopes that ongoing support for the scheme will enable the treatment of 20,000 Nepalese each year. Chris has also been very successful in raising funds for Brisbane-based medical research through the Coorparoo Lions Club, and donates his professional expertise to the activities of the Royal Blind Foundation, which he will represent at the Queen's Jubilee Garden Party at Buckingham Palace later this year.
James Moody
QUT Alumni Young Achiever Award Winner
James Moody completed a double degree, Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (Hons 1)/ Bachelor of Information Technology (With Distinction) at QUT in 1999, while studying Mathematics and collecting an array of academic awards and prizes. He was a University Medallist having obtained the highest grade point average of any engineering graduate of QUT. He was also awarded the John Kindler Memorial Medal for leadership, was made a Golden Key Asia Pacific Scholar and offered a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge.
Before and since graduation, James has been part of a developing Space Industry in Australia. He was given the challenging task of transferring the technology related to the design and operation of FedSat, a satellite partially built in England and being completed in Australia, to a team of Australian engineers and scientists who are building the satellite's payloads. James is Managing Director of Mitchell Resource Intelligence, Australia's first publicly listed spatial intelligence technology company, which specialises in the emerging area of spatial analysis and assessment of natural resources using cutting edge technology.
James became involved in the international sustainability debate through his roles as Chair of the Youth Advisory Council to the United Nations on Space Affairs, co-Chair of the United Nations Environment Program Youth Advisory Council and adviser to England's Oxford Commission on Sustainable Consumption. Recently James was invited to take part in the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development as a member of the Science and Technology Delegation.
In 2000, James was named Australian Young Professional Engineer of the Year, Young Queenslander of the Year, Queensland Young Achiever of the Year, and subsequently, Young Australian of the Year (Science and Technology) for 2001. James is the Director of Elements International, a UK sustainable development consulting firm, and of a number of other companies including SpaceFutures Pty Ltd, a space education company, and Thinking Edge Pty Ltd, a media company representing young achievers. He founded the International Young Professionals Foundation, which represented the Commonwealth Engineering Council at CHOGM 2002, and is a member of the Advisory Board for the International Child Art Foundation based in Washington DC.
James is currently enrolled in the PhD program at the Australian National University, focussing on Strategic Management Theory and the management of complex projects, in particular, the ways in which new Australian science and technology products can be developed. He undertakes work for organisations such as the Australian Vietnam Veterans Reconstruction Group and Greening Australia. He plays first clarinet in the Australian Academy of Music Symphonic Wind ensemble, the bass guitar and pursues a range of sports including snowboarding.
