I have been extremely fortunate to be selected as the Group Study Exchange Team Leader for the GSE District 6540 exchange to Indiana April to May 2008. I live in Cooma NSW with my wife and we have three grown sons two of which live in Cooma and one in Canberra, just north of Cooma. We moved to Cooma in 1997 to get out of the Sydney “rat race” and haven’t looked back. My wife and I have now been very happily married for over thirty years. Our boys have all participated in Rotary programs such as RYPEN, RYLA and Global Youth Exchange.
My career has been quite varied, in the early 70’s I completed schooling and took on an apprenticeship in electronics. Two years later I joined the Australian Regular Army as an electronics technician and served for nine years. After starting a family I left the army and after a short stint with a Dutch electrical switchgear manufacturer, joined the multinational Philips working in their defence related projects division. Philips won the Australian Defence Contract to manufacture and maintain the radar for the then McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet Fighter. This project then lead to new opportunities with various divisions of Hughes including Hughes Space and Communications Company when we began building components for their very successful HS601 communication satellites and other military satellite platforms. During this thirteen year period I ran several aspects of the business including the Defence group, Satellite manufacturing group and the Asia Pacific region of the Traffic Systems group.
One item of note was a relationship with Magnavox Electronic Systems Company based in Fort Wayne; manufacturers of military communications and electronic-warfare systems equipment. I traveled frequently to the USA on Business but unfortunately did not make it to Indiana to see the Fort Wayne factory.
During my time with Philips I was lucky to form long lasting friendships with many of my counterparts in the USA who have from time to time visited us in Australia. I hope to catch up with some of them on the west coast after our GSE tour.
These days I am a Business Manager for five hospitals and allied health facilities in my region; my role encompasses the financial and administrative control of these sites.
I have a small 300 acre farm south of Cooma bordering the Kosciuszko National Park which takes in most of Australia’s ski fields. As a ski enthusiast this makes a great base in winter to take part in my favourite sport. I am a keen Rotarian and have served on our club board for the past five years. Our club is very active in community and international service. I returned from my second aid trip to Papua New Guinea in October 2007 where we installed a 216,000 litre water tank in a remote village east of the capital city Port Moresby. To find out more about Cooma club see http://www.d9710.rotary.org.au/Cooma/
My career has been quite varied, in the early 70’s I completed schooling and took on an apprenticeship in electronics. Two years later I joined the Australian Regular Army as an electronics technician and served for nine years. After starting a family I left the army and after a short stint with a Dutch electrical switchgear manufacturer, joined the multinational Philips working in their defence related projects division. Philips won the Australian Defence Contract to manufacture and maintain the radar for the then McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet Fighter. This project then lead to new opportunities with various divisions of Hughes including Hughes Space and Communications Company when we began building components for their very successful HS601 communication satellites and other military satellite platforms. During this thirteen year period I ran several aspects of the business including the Defence group, Satellite manufacturing group and the Asia Pacific region of the Traffic Systems group.
One item of note was a relationship with Magnavox Electronic Systems Company based in Fort Wayne; manufacturers of military communications and electronic-warfare systems equipment. I traveled frequently to the USA on Business but unfortunately did not make it to Indiana to see the Fort Wayne factory.
During my time with Philips I was lucky to form long lasting friendships with many of my counterparts in the USA who have from time to time visited us in Australia. I hope to catch up with some of them on the west coast after our GSE tour.
These days I am a Business Manager for five hospitals and allied health facilities in my region; my role encompasses the financial and administrative control of these sites.
I have a small 300 acre farm south of Cooma bordering the Kosciuszko National Park which takes in most of Australia’s ski fields. As a ski enthusiast this makes a great base in winter to take part in my favourite sport. I am a keen Rotarian and have served on our club board for the past five years. Our club is very active in community and international service. I returned from my second aid trip to Papua New Guinea in October 2007 where we installed a 216,000 litre water tank in a remote village east of the capital city Port Moresby. To find out more about Cooma club see http://www.d9710.rotary.org.au/Cooma/
3 comments:
Great Blog
Where is the bio of the Team Leader
Regards
John Mercer
Secretary
Rotary Club of Cooma
Steve: Look forward to meeting you! You will be staying at our home. I was on a GSE team to NSW in 1970 and survived the great hospitality. Going to Bourke (?sp) almost did us in. Hope I get your email so we can exchange info and maybe even some jokes before you arrive. best wishes! PS I am a retired hospital/system CEO.
Steve -
We are hosting you during your stay in Elkhart/Goshen, Indiana. I worked for 12 years in Hosptial administration and the past 10 years working in two retirement systems. My wife and I are wondering if you have any dietary requirements and/or special requests for breakfast and dinner?
Mark King
Post a Comment