THE mining sector is often portrayed as the most rudimentary of industries, simply digging up dirt and shipping it to Asia.
THE mining sector is often portrayed as the most rudimentary of industries, simply digging up dirt and shipping it to Asia.
Yet one leading Western Australian academic has noted that resources companies have rapidly grown their social investment, an area generally perceived to be the domain of only the most sophisticated profit-driven businesses.
Paul Flatau, who has been appointed as chair of social investment and impact at the University of WA, wants to develop a better knowledge of business investment in social initiatives, something previously seen as the preserve of government and the community sector, with a few leading consumer-based companies thrown in.
“What I have seen in WA is the desire, I think, on the part of business to do something,” Professor Flatau said.
“I think this is coming from business.”
Professor Flatau said one of the most obvious areas where business had taken the initiative was in Aboriginal employment, though it was also funding numerous other social programs, notably in regional areas such as the Pilbara.
Shifting from Murdoch University and formerly director of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute WA Research Centre, Professor Flatau’s work will be part of the Centre for Social Impact, a joint venture between the business schools of the University of New South Wales, Swinburne University of Technology, and UWA.
While the centre operates out of business schools it is by no means focused exclusively on industry. In fact, Professor Flatau sees the rise of social investment by business as an opportunity to broaden research beyond the traditional community sector and government initiatives, which have increasingly sought to measure the impact of the funding they provide and target it better.
A centre initiative he will inherit is called ‘the values project’ across several universities led by a team of senior researchers including UWA professors Julie Lee and Geoff Soutar.
The broad aims of the project include: better ways to measure personal values that serve as guiding principles in people’s lives; identification of people’s values structures to better understand how values combine to promote different behaviours; and investigation of values stability in adults and what types of events lead to values change.
Professor Flatau’s appointment is one of several significant business-related appoints across the university spectrum in WA.
Also at UWA, leading Australian landscape architect Richard Weller has been appointed as director of the Urban Design Centre of WA and Stuart Kaye replaces William Ford as dean of the law school.
Those changes come as UWA vice-chancellor Alan Robson prepares for retirement this year and UWA Business School dean Tracey Horton plans to leave the institution in August.
In recent appointments at Curtin University, Simon Forrest was made director of the Centre for Aboriginal Studies and mining expert Peter Lilly will be executive director, minerals and energy strategy, to lead strategic business partnerships with the resources industry, particularly through the Curtin Institute of Minerals and Energy.
At Curtin’s executive, Ian Callahan is now vice-president, corporate services, a role directing areas of finance, IT, human resources, legal and compliance, properties and corporate risk.
Murdoch University has announced the appointment of an interim vice-chancellor following the retirement of John Yovich.
Gary Martin, currently senior deputy vice-chancellor and eight years with the institution, will take on the role while a new vice-chancellor is being recruited.
The University of Notre Dame Australia recently announced the retirement of Michael Quinlan as chancellor. Dr Quinlan was one of the university’s founders and has been a trustee since its inception.
He has had a most distinguished career as one of the state’s leading physicians and as a clinical professor of medicine at UWA as well as professor of medicine at Notre Dame, a school he helped establish.
Distinguished New South Wales barrister Terry Tobin QC will succeed Dr Quinlan as chancellor. Mr Tobin is the current deputy chancellor and is on the university’s board of trustees and board of directors.
