President Adrian paid tribute to Ron Cullen who last week celebrated 40 years of membership and service to our Club. We thought we would remind you of his background professionally and in Rotary.
Ron was born just prior to World War II, educated at Melbourne High and Melbourne University where he took his Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical) in 1962, completed his Master of Business Administration in 1968 (with a Bachelor of Commerce in between) and then lectured in the Melbourne Business School until 1973 when he gained his Doctorate in Philosophy – the second to be granted by the school.
He was nominated for membership by Ken Green, Secretary of the Premier’s Department. He was then in his third year as the most innovative Chairman of the Public Service Board introducing strategic performance agreements, performance evaluation and performance payment.
Although as he reminds us, he is an Engineer, Ron became inaugural Director of Finance of Telecom and was New South Wales State Manager of Telecom when head hunted by Victoria for the Public Service Board. From 1987 to 1993 he was Chairman of the Victorian Post Secondary Commission set up to facilitate the major changes in higher education over that period. At this time, he was a Member of the Council of the University and of the Board of the Business School.
He retired in 1993 and set up Performance Management Solutions to assist the public sector to measure and improve performance and has critically advised all governments in Australia.
From the outset, Ron was an active member contributing to the Club’s Committee work. After brief stints in our Reception and Rotoract Committees he made Vocational Service a main interest culminating in the Chairmanship from 2001 to 2003. In 2005/2007, he was Board Director overseeing our Vocational Services and was responsible for our Vocational Issues Panels which continue today.
He has also served on the International Fellowship, Program Health Issues and the Audit committees.
Since 2008 Ron was a member of the Community Welfare Committee, culminating as Chairman to 2015. As a member of that committee he was responsible for the Not-for-Profit Advisory group (Lighthouse Foundation) and the Sir John Reid Community Service Award; as well as being active on the Family Violence committee.
Ron was named a Paul Harris Fellow by the Rotary Club of Melbourne in 2007 and for a continuous dedication to the activities of this club in our local community awarded a Sapphire PHF in 2017.
Happy 40th Anniversary Ron!
