PAUL HARRIS FELLOW CITATION
DAVID CARRUTHERS – 5 JUNE 2019
David is one of those “wise men from the east”. He was born in Auckland, and in 1967 joined a chartered accounting firm that ultimately became Ernst & Young New Zealand. He completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree at Auckland University in 1969 and was admitted to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of New Zealand in 1971.
After short-term assignments in Indonesia and Fiji, David was seconded to London in 1972 until 1976. Soon after his return to NZ he commenced what was to be a 16 year career with BP, variously in Melbourne and London, culminating in 1991, when he was appointed CEO at BP Finance Europe, based in Brussels.
In 1993 David returned to Melbourne for senior State appointments including Managing Director, Treasury Corporation of Victoria, a position he held for five years. He now provides advisory services through a private company, has served as a Director on the Boards of three listed companies and as an adviser to investment committees.
David and his wife, Caroline, have two sons: Nicholas and Martin, and two grandsons. They enjoy theatre and concerts, while David is an avid cricket follower and rugby union supporter. David is also passionate about his other leisure pursuits, which include golf – played regularly at near maximum handicap – and genealogy.
David was inducted into the Rotary Club of Melbourne on 27 February 2002 with the classification Consultancy – Financial Risk Management. From the outset, he has served as a member of the Investment Committee. He has also served as Captain of the Hawthorn-Kew Group and has very occasionally been a winner as a player in the Golf Special Interest Group.
But undoubtedly David’s greatest contribution to Rotary Melbourne has been through his role as Honorary Treasurer for the past seven years. He has restructured and simplified the budgetary and financial reporting processes and disciplines, making them both more comprehensive and more readily understandable. He has also been responsive to requests for further information and clarification, something that lay people have greatly appreciated, indeed David has lifted an already good standard of financial management to a new level of excellence.
Counter-intuitively perhaps for a Treasurer, he has always vigorously encouraged Directors to spend all available funds for worthy humanitarian projects, thus demonstrating his passion for promoting the good works of the Club in helping build a better world.
In preparing for his ‘retirement’ as Honorary Treasurer, David recruited Peter Hanlon to take on the Assistant Treasurer role for 12 months during which time David was able to bring Peter up to speed on all aspects of the role so that when Peter takes over next month he will hit the ground running!
David has done an outstanding job as Treasurer and was recognized in 2014 by then President Peter Bearsley with a Paul Harris Fellow. Today, it is my great pleasure to name David a Sapphire Paul Harris Fellow for his sustained effort and service to the Club.
