With such a celebrated career overseas and on the mainland, won't he and his family miss all the excitement? "We still have a highly conformist system and we don't celebrate the non-conformists, we don't do enough to promote them." Professor Black has said the idea of "healthy craziness" should be nurtured. "We haven't made those people heroes in Australia." Time to celebrate the non-conformists "We've got to move on from the idea of entrepreneurs as the 'white shoe brigade', the real heroes are the Steve Jobs of the world, the people who are creating new things for us. "University courses are still very much about preparing people for pretty traditional professions," he told the ABC's Jon Faine in 2015.
Professor Black has spoken previously of his frustrations with Australia's education pathways. "Knowledge at the core of cities is what transforms them." Professor Black has gone on to many other advisory and consultancy roles, as well as becoming head of Melbourne's Ormond College, earning a degree in politics from University of Melbourne.īut the move to Tasmania to take up the UTAS vice-chancellor role will mean he gives up his many positions elsewhere, he said on Friday. The following year, he joined with Robert Cornall to produce the Independent Review of the Australian Intelligence Community, to assess the performance of Australia's six spy agencies.Ī number of intelligence experts expressed their disdain for the Cornall/Black report, including a former deputy secretary of Defence who was scathing in his verdict, stating in the Canberra Times "the only thing the Commonwealth will have learned is who not to hire to do the next review of the intelligence community". The Black Review won praise but was not without its critics, including the Australian Defence Association which said "no Minister on top of his job or with a genuine interest in defence issues (and their history) would accept such a flawed report". "The current arrangements are under stress and their failure damages Defence." It has its strengths and weaknesses, however Defence has reached a point in its evolution where there is a strong case to redesign its accountability system," he wrote in the report.
"Defence has a complex accountability system that has evolved over many years. In 2010, Professor Black was asked by the Gillard government to author what became known as The Black Review, a "review of the defence accountability framework" in the wake of the Australian Defence Force Academy and HMAS Success scandals. ( ABC News: James Dunlevie) Defence, intel reports not welcomed by all Professor Black has said his daughters are very happy with the move. Now, Professor Black's passion for education has brought him to Hobart, where he takes over from outgoing vice-chancellor Peter Rathgen, who is off to Adelaide University.Ī stand out in a distinguished field, Professor Black "demonstrated a rare mix of high intellect, academic standing and commercial experience that we feel will be necessary to lead a period of cultural transformation here," UTAS chancellor Michael Field said at Friday's press conference.Ĭultural transformation is something Professor Black has touched on before - with not everyone liking the results. Professor Black would go on to become a Rhodes Scholar, theologian and ordained Uniting Church minister, ethicist, philosopher, strategic advisor and management consultant - and the father of twin girls. never got in the way," he told Melbourne University for an alumni profile. "I've been really lucky, along the way, to have had inspiring teachers and mentors who believed in me and encouraged me. "So I went to law school to fight the good fight."ĭyslexia hampered him in his law studies, but he persevered and credited his mentors and teachers.