Distinguished businessman and UQ Senator Norbury Rogers AO has been awarded an honorary doctorate, and was guest speaker at a UQ graduation ceremony on Friday December 16.
Mr Rogers received an honorary Doctor of Economics degree at the ceremony at the UQ Centre, Union Road, St Lucia at 11am. You can listen to his speech by clicking here.
Mr Rogers, who has a 48-year relationship with Ernst and Young and its predecessor firms, was appointed to The University of Queensland Senate in 1990 and completed his fourth consecutive term in 2005. He is a director of UQ Holdings and Chair of UniQuest Pty Ltd and UniSynd Pt Ltd.
He has been a board member of the Golden Casket Lottery Corporation Limited Group (chair since 1995), Magellan Petroleum Australia Limited and Business Management Limited; and an external member of the Risk Management and Audit Committee of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority. He is a former chair of the Australian Institute of Marine Science and Global Seafood Australia Limited; and a former director of Queensland Ports Corporation, CSIRO, QIW Ltd and other bodies.
• Valedictorian at the 11am ceremony for Business, Economics and Law graduates was Bachelor of Commerce first class honours graduate Stephen Dash. Mr Dash will begin a career as an Investment Banker with JP Morgan in Sydney in 2006.
During his studies at UQ, he has actively run a small business and was a finalist in the UQ Business School’s Enterprize Competition in both 2004 and 2005 (receiving the Queensland Government’s ilab prize in 2004, valued at $25,000). In 2003, Mr Dash was one of two recipients of the Queensland Global Achiever Award from the Institute of Chartered Accountants. In addition he received Dean’s Commendations for High Achievement through undergraduate studies and in 2004 was listed on the Dean’s Honour Role.
His honours thesis, which he completed in November, required him to develop a framework for valuation of the brand assets of a geographical region in Australia. This framework was applied to the Noosa region to value the brand name Noosa as part of a cooperative arrangement with the Noosa Shire Council.
• At the 11am ceremony, PhD student Jason Hall of the UQ Business School received his award. Mr Hall has developed a method to value tech stocks, a technique which legendary investor Warren Buffet said was not possible.
• Valedictorian at the 6pm ceremony at the UQ Centre for Business, Economics and Law Faculty graduates was Stephanie Cunningham, who graduated with First Class Honours in Business Management (with a major in marketing). Supervised by Professor Bettina Cornwell of the UQ Business School, her thesis focused on the managerial and strategic underpinnings of sponsorship, specifically looking at the extent to which sponsorship policy tailors corporate image. She is hoping to embark on a career involving both academia and strategic management consulting. Stephanie can be contacted on 0409 269 209.
• Graduates included UQ Business School PhD student Rose Wong who says commercialising research doesn’t necessarily mean abandoning the philosophy of the public good.
Dr Wong said commercialising new research results might seem to be incompatible with sharing knowledge freely for the common good.
“My research showed this isn’t an either/or choice,” she said.
“While some scientists in my study persisted in describing it as such, many others were able to accommodate both ideas.”
Dr Wong said her study focused on the impact and responses of government research institutions and the scientists who worked in them.
“There is an apparent conflict between the traditional ideas of publishing and sharing scientific research results and the need to protect potential intellectual property,” she said. “A patent will not be awarded if it can be proved that the research findings have been publicised.
“But in the research institutions that I studied – the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation – there is a deeply embedded scientific culture that demands publication of research findings. Internal reward structures tend to support the existing culture.”
Dr Wong said scientists were becoming more comfortable with the commercialisation imperative as their organisations became more proficient at managing the intellectual property (IP).
“Recently-trained scientists are more comfortable with the idea of commercialisation as a legitimate goal of publicly-funded research,” she said.
“The study shows that management has an important role in facilitating the transition to a more commercially oriented environment by removing obstacles such as inconsistencies in the reward structure, provision of training, and resources in the area of intellectual property.”
• Guest speaker at the 6pm ceremony was be Mr Barry O’Sullivan, a leadership coach with a blue chip clientele in the public and private sectors. You can listen to his speech by clicking here. Mr O’Sullivan has extensive experience in private sector roles with more than 20 years’ experience as a Big Five partner. His experience includes leading the Assurance Division of KPMG in Brisbane for the six years to 2001.
Media: Further information Jan King, telephone 0413 601 248. or Cathy Stacey, telephone 0434 074 372.
