9 August, 2012 | 2012

PR2012: Mal Bryce awarded 2012 Pearcey Medal

Melbourne 9th August 2012: The 2012 Pearcey Medal for outstanding lifetime achievement and contribution to the development and growth of the IT professions, research and industry has been awarded to Dr Mal Bryce.

Announcing the award tonight, Chair of the Pearcey Foundation, Wayne Fitzsimmons, said Dr Bryce was an outstanding individual whose contribution to the ICT industry had been exemplary. “Mal Bryce has been a champion of the Australian ICT industry and profession since the late 1970s and during his career as a company director, corporate manager, senior consultant and cabinet minister in the 1980s has focussed on developing companies, communities and public policy to harness the power of Information and Communications Technology,” Mr Fitzsimmons said.

Throughout the 1990s he was a leading Australian pioneer in the development of the Internet Industry and the application of the Internet to business, government agencies and communities. He was the architect of Australia’s first (and one of the world’s first) Internet-enabled online communities in Ipswich, Queensland (1993) and he led the team that implemented Australia’s first community driven eCommerce Project.

Dr Bryce’s book, Australia’s First Online Community, published in 2010 is a case study in IT-led economic development and he is currently undertaking research for his next book, on the role of the ICT sector in the emergence of the knowledge economy in Australia.

Dr Bryce was honoured by WAITTA (the WA IT and Telecommunications Awards) in 2002 as the “WAITTA Achiever of the Year”.

Mr Fitzsimons said the Pearcey Foundation made awards to outstanding individuals across the Australian ICT sector and these awards celebrated achievements in appreciation of the contribution of Australia’s technology pioneers. “The Pearcey Medal is presented in memory of Australia’s great ICT pioneer Dr Trevor Pearcey, and Mal Bryce is a most worthy recipient of this great honour,” Mr Fitzsimmons said. “Mal meets the Pearcey Medal criteria of being a person who, like Trevor Pearcey, has by hard work, intelligence, and dedication made a major and continuing contribution to Australia's and the world's IT industry and research and is an great example of what Australians can and have achieved in this industry.” Mr Fitzsimmons said in selecting Dr Bryce to be this year’s Pearcey Medal recipient, the judges looked for a contribution which was above and beyond what could be considered appropriate to the job functions performed. The medal was presented by Len Rust of the National Committee of the Pearcey Foundation, at the gala 2012 iAwards event attended by Senator Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband Communications and the Digital Economy, and Gordon Rich-Phillips, Victorian Minister for Technology, in addition to some 800 industry figures from across the country.