The presentation of a Paul Harris Fellow Award to Honorary Secretary, Russell Board for his service particularly in 2020-2021 which was a challenging year requiring Russell’s calm and thorough governance oversight. This Award presentation had been delayed because of Club and Family logistical issues since this time last year. In making the Presentation, Reg added his own thanks to Russell for his continuing outstanding service over the past year as well.
Citation
Russell graduated from Queensland University in Civil Engineering in 1977.
After joining GHD and spending some years in Darwin, in July 1995 he was relocated to Cairns and became Manager, North Queensland and Northern Territory, which position he held until January 2002 when he became General Manager of GHD in New Zealand. In February 2004, his role in GHD changed to General Manager, South-East Asia and Pacific and he assumed management responsibility for engineering, architectural, environmental science, and project management professional services practices in South-East Asia (including The Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam), New Zealand, and Chile. Despite his workload, in 2006 he attended Harvard Business School and completed their Advanced Management Program 171.
In November 2007 Russell returned to Australia and in November 2008 became the General Manager for GHD in Australia and New Zealand, assuming management responsibility for the Australian and New Zealand practice of GHD. He was also a member of the Practice Management Group.
Russell was a Director of GHD from July 1999 to March 2017. For GHD this was a period of internationalisation and growth (1000%) as GHD migrated from being an Australian consultancy to one operating throughout the world with 8500 staff. During this period Russell also served as chair of Finance Committee, Risk Committee, Audit Committee and Nominations Committee.
From November 2011 to March 2017 Russell was the Chairman of GHD which involved leadership of the Board and further development of governance model through a period of significant international expansion, particularly in USA, Canada, and UK, whilst retaining 100% ownership by staff. In addition to chairing the board, he also chaired the Finance and Nominations committee.
Russell has a long history as a Rotarian having been a member of Darwin Sunrise Rotary Club, and the Rotary Club of Cairns Sunrise.
Russell was inducted into Melbourne Rotary on 15 May 2013 with his sponsor being Clive Weeks – a GHD Colleague – with the classification of Engineering. He is a member of the Central 1 Group and is also a member of the Special Interest Group for Golf.
Russell was the Protection Officer for Melbourne Rotary 2017/2018; Board member for 2019/2020; and for 2020/2021 he is the Honorary Secretary as well as being on the Audit and Risk committee.
Russell took on the Honorary Secretary role in a challenging year. He has had to manage some very delicate conversations and he has done this professionally and with the utmost discretion. He has had to manage his own very complex set of circumstances but has kept our Board processes on track at every turn.
Russell’s contribution to the club in the Centenary year has included keeping a balanced approach to ensuring the club’s processes are adhered to and also engaging professionally and expertly with both members of the Board and others. He has shown deft skill in managing the governance and individual demands in a difficult year.
This award is in recognition of Russell going above and beyond the expected commitment of a club member and Board member of Melbourne Rotary, and providing a significant contribution in a very complex year. He managed these as expertly as his golf commitments!
Presented 25/05/2022 by President Reg Smith OAM
We congratulate Russell--an exemplar Rotarian--and today name him a Paul Harris Fellow.
