Paul Barratt AO

A personal commitment

The UNE Foundation is charged with overseeing community donations is administered by an independent board with considerable expertise and life experience, including outgoing Chair of four years Paul Barratt AO. As Mr Barratt prepares to step down from the Director role he has held for 13 years, he reflected on his long and proud association with the University of New England.

"I received an honours degree in physics from the University and my father was the very first student enrolled at UNE, in the initial intake in 1938 (at what was then New England University College)," Mr Barratt said. "My father (also named Paul) returned to the University straight after the second world war and later become the third Professor of Psychology at UNE. I more or less grew up on the campus."

Mr Barratt junior went on to enjoy a distinguished public service career, culminating in appointments as Secretary to the Commonwealth Government departments of Primary Industries and Energy (1996-98) and Defence (1998-99). During a career spanning 30 years he played an important role in bilateral trade negotiations and conducted government business in more than 30 countries, most notably China and Japan.

His overseas experience gave Mr Barratt a strong interest in the factors affecting the international competitiveness of Australian business, which he was able to pursue as Executive Director of the Business Council of Australia. In 1999 he was made an Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia for service to public administration, public policy development, business and international trade.

This considerable business and life experience was invaluable in his role at the UNE Foundation, which receives donations from individuals, corporations and public entities to fund scholarships and contribute to the University's teaching and research priorities.

"Over the course of my career, I guess I was accustomed to dealing with all sorts of different people and situations, and was familiar with governance issues," Mr Barratt said. "Having sat at the top of large organisations, I understood how they work.

In the UNE Foundation Director role I had a feeling I was giving back to the University and helping to grow the funds available to scholarships for students, many of them country kids like me.

Mr Barratt said his familiarity with some of the donorsadded an additional gravity to the role. "It made me very conscious of the fact that we were dealing with other people's money," he said. "At lunches, when we would meet donors and students in receipt of scholarships, it was sometimes quite moving. The opportunity to study at the University opens up a whole new world."