** If you are not a current ACS member, you will be asked to 'create an account'. Your details will be used for registration processes only. If you experience technical issues, please contact the WA Branch by e-mail acs.wa@acs.org.au **



This panel session will lead you to reflect on how you can have an impact in Information Technology, regardless of where you are at in your professional journey. Panellists for this event are all ACS Fellows who have been identified by the ACS as having made a significant impact on Australian ICT.

If you’re a student or an emerging professional, you’ll learn from the lived experience of IT legends, and see examples that demonstrate how passion and drive can have a significant impact on the communities, employers, and organisations you serve! You’ll see how these attributes can differentiate yourself from others who are going for the same job or the same promotion, and lead to a highly satisfying and rewarding career.

Mid-career IT professionals will see examples of what it means be an innovative leader who strives for excellence above and beyond the normal expectations of a job, and how this can transform your career progression.

The panel and other ACS Fellows will be on hand during the networking session. This will give you an opportunity to get to know your ACS WA Branch Fellows, and start you on your own journey of impact.

Already making a significant impact to our profession? Start the conversation about ACS member regrade to Fellow at this event!

Meet the Panel

Mark Jackson FACS
Mark has spent the last 10 years coaching business owners and managers in the art and science of leading people and running businesses. Prior to that he founded and then spent 24 years growing a managed services IT company employing over 30 people. Mark has a substantial track record of turnarounds, taking struggling and low profit businesses and helping them improve their profit, their quality of life and the lives of all who depend on them. He originally graduated Computer Science (hons) from the University of Sydney and is a Fellow of the Australian Computer Society.

Dr Valerie Maxville FACS
Valerie Maxville has devoted her time to the betterment of the ICT industry by leadership of voluntary professional organisations. She has engaged senior politicians and senior public servants, convincing them to support the ICT industry by underwriting events, listening to and accepting proposals, speaking for the industry and providing funding. She has given the industry a voice that is heard by the Western Australian Government. In addition to connecting with government, Valerie has undertaken hands-on tasks such as speaking to students in schools and universities, resulting in more young people entering the industry. She is involved internationally to advance the cause of High Performance Computing and has been the cause of Australian graduates becoming involved in the field. In every respect, Valerie Maxville is a relatively young person who has achieved benefits for the ICT industry that are normally accomplished only by older people.

Jan Kornweibel FACS CP
Jan spent most of the 1960s and 1970s honing her software-development skills – and she experienced first-hand the challenges of establishing a career as a woman in a male-dominated technology industry. She has worked as a project manager, principal consultant, and in other technical roles with the likes of the Commonwealth Bank, Optus, and others – including extensive work remediating the Y2K bug, which she described as “just another big testing project”.  In the early 1970s she became the first female elected on to the ACS WA Branch Executive Committee, which led her to a long-running relationship with ACS that included running a Special Interest Group (SIG) exploring the use of computer technology to assist disabled people. In 1981, her interest in disabled people being helped with computer technology was piqued with being awarded a Churchill Fellowship that saw her travelling to the USA, UK, France, and Netherlands to study developments in the practical application of computerised aids for disability. She currently mentors Australians with autism to assist them in becoming software quality testers.

Jim Ellis OAM FACS HLM
Jim Ellis has had a long career in ICT during which he worked for international computer suppliers in a variety of countries, including in Eastern Europe, Singapore and Hong Kong before moving to Australia in 1981.  He has been involved in the ACS both at a state level, including as WA Branch Chair, and nationally, being a Vice President of the Society for a number of years.  He is perhaps best known for founding the successful WA Information Technology and Telecommunications Awards (WAITTA) more than 30 years ago.  The awards, now known as the Incite Awards, are still one of the most successful of the state-based ICT awards.  He was also involved in the international Asia Pacific ICT Awards, known as APICTA, as both a Chief Judge and as a board member.  He also ran his own company, Westinfo Services, which represented Gartner in both WA and the Northern Territory. He also co-founded the Autism Academy for Software Quality Assurance (AASQA) at Curtin University which assists persons on the autism spectrum take up successful careers in information technology through internships with major WA organisations, including in the mining and financial sectors.

Nigel Chartres FACS
Nigel Chartres distinguished contribution to ICT has been to envision and deliver the use of ICT to completely transform the way that users accessed various health related services first in West Australia, and then nationally. His leadership and ability to achieve organisational change in the pursuit of a single doorway to government services led to systems such as the ‘Online WA Program’ and established a yardstick for ICT reform in healthcare. To achieve this, he established digital pathways in areas where no such systems previously existed, opening routes between the many entities in healthcare and government. He thus demonstrated possibilities that shaped ICT reform across all levels of government bureaucracies. He is acknowledged for bringing together stakeholders, industry professionals and government departments at the National level in the reform of digital and online health care systems and data management. He remains an inspiration to the many that he has mentored.


Post presentation light refreshments will be provided following the presentation at the Metro Bar and Hotel (conveniently located on site).

PLEASE NOTE:

To confirm attendance and CPD point allocation, on arrival at registration, please make sure to have your event confirmation e-mail with QR code ready to present where your attendance will be recorded. This can be provided via your phone or a printed copy.

The event venue is Adina Apartment Hotel at 33 Mounts Bay Road (located near the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre).