Supreme Court Judge of Appeal the Hon. Justice Glen Williams will be awarded an honorary Doctorate of Laws and address law graduates at a UQ graduation ceremony on Tuesday, December 16.
The University’s governing Senate has awarded the degree to recognise Justice Williams’ distinguished career in law and for his contribution to the University.
He will receive the degree at a ceremony for graduands in the Business, Economics and Law Faculty at the UQ Centre, Union Road, St Lucia at 3pm.
Justice Williams was admitted as a barrister in 1962 after completing Arts and Law degrees, both with first class honours, at UQ. In 1978 he became a Queens Counsel. In 1982, Justice Williams was appointed to the Supreme Court of Queensland and was appointed to the Solomon Islands Court of Appeal in 1993. He has served as a member or chairperson for a number of organisations, including the Australian Institute of Judicial Administration, and the Queensland Law Reform Commission (1976 – 1989).
He chaired the Queensland Law Reform Commission between 1993 and 1996. He was appointed the president of the Industrial Court of Queensland in 1998. Justice was the Vice-president to the Judges Forum, International Bar Association between 1996 and 1999, and was appointed chair in 1999, a position he currently holds. He has also been a member of several committees which have reviewed rules of procedure and the adoption of case management techniques. He was appointed to the Court of Appeal in 2000. Justice Williams has been a committed member of the University’s Alumni, raising the profile of UQ’s T.C. Beirne School of Law in the legal profession. He played a key role in fundraising activities including fundraising for the Chair in Law.
• On Monday, December 15 Adjunct Professor John Cooper will be guest speaker at the 3pm ceremony for Commerce and Economics graduands. Professor Cooper, who specialises in construction law, commercial and corporate law, competition law and media law for Allens, Arthur Robinson, has been involved in many large projects including advising financiers for the A$1.4 billion Millmerran Power Station project, one of the largest project financing deals undertaken in Australia. He advised the Queensland Government on Airtrain, the first Build, Own, Operate, and Transfer project undertaken in Queensland.
Professor Cooper has also advised the firm`s media clients in Queensland on pre-publication issues, defamation actions, contempt actions, and intellectual property rights for the past 17 years. He has been a legal adviser to News Corporation, the Ten Network, the Nine Network and the 7 Network. He has also represented private plaintiffs in some of the largest defamation claims in Queensland. Professor Cooper obtained a Bachelor of Commerce with First Class Honours, a Bachelor of Laws with Second Class Division A Honours and a Master of Financial Management from The University of Queensland. He is a past Chairman of the Construction Law Committee of the Business Law Section of the Law Council of Australia and the Construction Law Committee of the Queensland Law Society. He is also a past committee member of the Australian Institute of Project Management and the Infrastructure Association of Queensland. He is the Chairman of the Professional Engineers Disciplinary Panel in Queensland and is a graded arbitrator.
• Guest speaker at the 6pm ceremony on Monday, December 15 for Management graduands is UQ Senator, company director and chartered accountant Norbury Rogers AO. Mr Rogers is Chairman of UniQuest Pty Ltd. UniQuest is the specialised technology commercialisation company of UQ. He is also a Board member of UQ Holdings Limited, the Holding Company for all University owned companies.
Mr Rogers is also Chairman of the Golden Casket Lottery Corporation Limited Group, Chairperson of the Council of the Australian Institute of Marine Science, a Director of Business Management Limited, Chairman of the Suncorp Metway Investment Management Limited Compliance Committee, a Director of Magellan Petroleum Australia Limited, an external member of the Risk Management and Audit Committee of APRA (the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority), and until last year was a member of the Board of CSIRO. Mr Rogers is immediate past Chairman of the Australian Olympic Games Team Fund Appeal Committee – Brisbane, a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and an honorary Trustee of the Committee for Economic Development of Australia. A UQ Commerce graduate (1963), he was appointed an Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2003. He was awarded the Centenary Medal (2003) and the Australian Sports Medal (2001).
• Financial talkback radio expert and Chief Executive Officer of Enstil Financial Strategies Dr Malcolm Johnson will graduate with a PhD at the December 15, 6pm ceremony. Dr Johnson’s doctoral thesis on behavioural finance has made a major contribution to understanding how baby-boomers approach financial planning decisions. He has presented his research findings to the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) as well as at a number of conferences including the International Macro-Marketing Conference (Bergen, Norway). Dr Johnson, a former lecturer in the UQ Business School who studied for both his MBA (1986) and PhD at UQ part-time, has also recently joined the Board of 96.5FM.
• Ms Jean Althoff will be awarded an MBA (Advanced) degree at the December 15, 6pm ceremony. Her thesis specialised in emotional perception in the boardroom. She has enrolled in a PhD to study the processes of causal attribution in top management teams. In February, 2004, she is visiting Talahassee, Florida to attend an international conference on her research topic. Ms Althoff is a company director of a leading plaster company, and was Queensland Housing Industry Association president 2001 to 2003. She has been nominated for 2004 president of the Walls and Ceilings Association and has been a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors since 1999. She is the recipient of numerous industry awards, including 1996 Business Achiever of the Year by Logan City Chamber of Commerce.
• Former mariner and special counsel specialising in maritime, aviation, commercial and international trade law at Ebsworth & Ebsworth Solicitors Mr Ambrose Rajadurai will be awarded his Master of Laws degree in Maritime Law at the December 16, 3pm ceremony. Mr Rajadurai has extensive international experience, including as Chief Operating Officer at Global Carriers Berhad, Malaysia, responsible for day to day management of more than 800 staff, 26 ships and annual revenues and expenditure of about $50 million. Mr Rajadurai gained worldwide seagoing experience between 1971 and 1979 before careers as a harbour pilot, dockmaster, part-time lecturer, and various appointments in Malaysia, Singapore, London, Rotterdam and the North Sea in chartering, refinery operations, pilotage and marine operations and shipping operations management. He has a long time association with the Oil Companies International Marine Forum and the Intertanko Safety and Technical Committee (Intertanko is the International Association of Independent Tanker Owners headquartered in Oslo.) Mr Rajadurai continues to be an active member of the Intertanko Pilotage Working Group, which is involved in reforming pilotage practices worldwide to improve safety and risk management.
Media: Further information, Jan King telephone 0413 601 248.
