In November, University Distinguished Professor Bob Galliers returned to Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia where he had been Head of the School of Information Systems to give the keynote address and bestow the Galliers Awards on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the founding of the School. The Galliers Awards go to the top undergraduate Honors and Master’s students in Information Systems at Curtin.
Galliers arrived at Curtin University as a visiting senior fellow in 1982 when the school was known as Western Australian Institute of Technology, ironically located in the Perth suburb of Bentley. He was responsible for developing what was a nascent program in Information Systems Management – the first of its kind in the Southern hemisphere. “This was during the early days of IT, at a time when the technology began changing the way we do business,” Galliers said. “Up until this time, computing programs in business schools tended to focus on the development of individual applications that supported the different business functions, like accounting. Few, if any, considered the management, organizational and strategic impacts of the technology.”
From 2002 to 2009, Galliers was Provost of Bentley, during which time university status was achieved, EQUIS accreditation gained, the PhD program and Liberal Studies major launched.