Russell Bate OAM has more than 45 years of experience in the IT industry.
He has held senior management positions in both hardware and software companies, retiring from full time employment in 2002 as vice president of product sales operations of Asia Pacific for the US multinational Sun Microsystems. He was responsible for direct sales operations in the Sun's Asia Pacific Region, an area that included the ASEAN countries, Australasia, China, the Indian sub-continent, Japan and Korea. He joined Sun in 1992 and was appointed Australasian Managing Director in 1994, managed the Australasian operation through five years of record growth, and was awarded Sun's prestigious Leadership Award in 2000 and elected to its Leadership Council. In that same year, he was also promoted to the position of vice president of product sales operations for Asia Pacific, and became the first Australian to be made a vice president at the company.
Since his retirement, Mr Bate has retained a close association with the technology industry.
He was a board member and chair of Musica Viva Australia, Australian Distributed Incubator, CR X, and Field and Game Australia. He was a board member of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation from 1995 to 2000, and the Australian Information Industry Association from 1997 to 2000.
In 2012, Mr Bate was awarded a member of the Order of Australia for services to the community through executive roles with a range of sporting and arts organisations, and to local government.
