This year has started on a high for Rio Tinto’s Aussie chief Sam Walsh (pictured above) who was the recipient of an honorary doctorate of commerce at Edith Cowan University at the weekend.
Apart from our love of musty regalia, The Note was also pleased to see the honour bestowed in a field appropriate to Mr Walsh, unlike so many such awards which gain headlines for their obscurity or controversy.
Mr Walsh has good company at ECU, joining Kerry Stokes, a fellow board member at WA Newspapers Holdings. Both have direct and indirect interests in the iron ore field, too.
In scouting around for other business names we noted once high profile Japanese businessman and philanthropists Haruhisa Handa also has an honorary doctorate from ECU. Interestingly, Mr Handa also has such honours from the University of WA and Curtin University of Technology.
The Note decided to search around for other business names with honorary doctorates (in any field) from WA unis and came up with this, possibly not exhaustive, list.
UWA – Trevor Eastwood; John Poynton; David Griffiths; Harold Clough; Michael Chaney; Rod Eddington; Tony Howarth; Thomas Wardle; Jack Bendat; James Cruthers; Brettney Fogarty; Janet Holmes a Court; and Kerry Sanderson.
Curtin – James Cruthers; Ian Mackenzie; Arvi Parbo; and Ian Burston.
Murdoch – Catherine Livingstone.
Notre Dame – Bernie Prindiville.