The Australian Computer Society (ACS) has elected a new President, Vice-President Membership Boards, National Treasurer and three National Congressional Representatives at its ACS Congress meeting in Hobart.
Dr Nick Tate was elected as President for 2012–2013. He succeeds outgoing President, Anthony Wong.
Dr Tate joined the ACS in 2004 and currently holds the position of ACS National Treasurer.
He has been actively involved in the ACS over the past six years and has held various roles within the ACS Queensland Branch, including Branch Chair and Branch Vice Chair. He was also the Chair of the World Computer Congress in 2010.
Dr Tate is Director of the Australian Government's Research Data Storage Infrastructure (RDSI) project based at the University of Queensland (UQ).
RDSI is a $50 million project which aims to transform the storage of research data throughout Australia with the establishment of a multi petabyte federated storage service.
Dr Tate holds a Bachelor's degree in Physics from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, a Master's degree in Computer Science and a PhD in IT security.
He is also a Chartered Engineer, a Chartered IT Professional, a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and a Fellow of the ACS. He has 37 years of experience in ICT with over 16 years at a CIO/IT Director level.
Dr Tate said, “As ICT becomes ever more entrenched in our modern lifestyle, enabling every aspect of commerce, government, education, communications and entertainment, we need to address issues related to ICT skills development to ensure quality supply of ICT skills for our economic development.
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"We also need to recognise the contribution of ICT professionals to the economy appropriately.”
Wong welcomed the result and congratulated Dr Tate on his appointment.
“The ACS has enjoyed significant growth in membership and reached the milestone of 20,000 members in November this year," Wong said. Nick is highly regarded amongst peers in the ACS and the ICT sector. I am confident he will lead the ACS to its next stage of development and drive professionalism in the ICT profession.”
Dr Tate takes over as ACS National President on January 1.
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The ACS also elected Doug Grant as Vice President Membership Boards.
Grant has more than 18 years of senior management experience in the university sector, latterly managing more than 100 staff and a budget of close to $20 million.
He is experienced in exercising strategic leadership through many challenges. His strategic leadership competence is best illustrated by the way he led computing at Swinburne from a small department, running out-dated courses and doing no research, to a large faculty (now one of only three IT faculties in Australia) with a large range of courses appreciated by students and employers alike and a very strong research profile with an international outlook.
Other positions filled were:
- National Treasurer – Yohan Ramasundara (Canberra)
- National Congressional Representative - Mike Driver (Queensland)
- National Congressional Representative - Peter Palmer (NSW)
- National Congressional Representative - Ian Wells (Victoria)
ACS CEO Alan Patterson thanked Wong for his contribution to the Society as President and outgoing members of the Management Committee, Brenda Aynsley, Jack Burton, Kumar Parakala and Patrick Wilson for their dedication in helping grow the ACS.
