News Archive

Oil, gas and mining worth $100 billion - and prospects for similar future growth - have made the Pilbara a key driver in Australia's extraordinary economic wealth.

The region accounts for 5.7 per cent of the nation's Gross Domestic Product and its 62,000 population is expected to more than double in the next 20 years.

But with current global economic uncertainties and volatile resources markets, it is vital the region develops advanced business leadership skills to secure a sustainable future.

Major issues facing the Pilbara are being explored in depth this week as leading experts, students and graduates from the UWA Business School visit the region to host leadership lunches and lead student activities at local high schools.

(Visiting UWA experts will be available for media interviews in the Pilbara.)

The UWA Gives Back Pilbara Tour is a major part of the University's 2013 Centenary Celebrations which focus on UWA's leading role in world-class research and expertise as a driver for business, industry and advanced tertiary education.

UWA partners BHP Billiton, Woodside and Resources Capital Funds are co-sponsoring the five-day tour.

UWA Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Johnson said the University's teaching, research and community involvement had led to new and better ways to build WA's economic and social fabric, especially in the Pilbara minerals and energy sectors.

"With Western Australia predicted to retain its position as the nation's strongest economy throughout 2013, it is important to ensure the engine room of this phenomenal success - the Pilbara - remains internationally competitive in a rapidly changing world," he said.

"UWA is helping to address new challenges facing this region. As a world top 100 university, we are now well-equipped to help Pilbara regional communities secure their sustainable economic future."

UWA Business School's Woodside Chair in Leadership and Management, Winthrop Professor David Day, said equipping everyone, from CEOs to plant operators, with leadership skills was vital to tackle complex challenges that Pilbara communities may face in the future.

Professor Day, an international expert in management and organisations, addressed a Karratha leadership lunch today on what it takes to become an effective leader, why it's important for everyone - not just executives - and how to develop leadership skills to achieve greater human potential.

UWA's BHP Billiton Chair in the Business of Resources, Winthrop Professor Peter Hartley, will address a similar leadership lunch in Port Hedland on Friday July 5 on the ‘boom and bust' cycles endemic in the resources sector which make planning difficult and increase risk.

Professor Hartley is also a leading economics professor and energy policy scholar at Rice University in Texas, and specialises in the long-term transition to renewable energy sources and the relationship between energy use and environmental impacts.

Professors Day and Hartley are joined by UWA Business School's Centre for Social Impact Director, Winthrop Professor Paul Flatau, who has worked closely with the industry, government and the not-for-profit sector on social and economic outcomes, including in Indigenous housing, poverty, and unemployment.

The tour group are also visiting Karratha, Newman and Port Hedland high schools to encourage Pilbara students to enter the Aspire UWA pathway into tertiary study to develop their potential and help secure a sustainable future for local communities.

School visits feature Resource Capital Funds Co-founder and Managing Partner James McClements, who grew up in the Pilbara and won a Broken Hill Proprietary scholarship to study at UWA while working summers in Newman and Port Hedland.

Mr McClements - who has extensive top-level international fund management experience and currently oversees $3.4 billion in investments through RCF, which he co-founded - is leading informal student discussions about how to be an effective leader in the classroom, workplace and community.

(Photo opportunities will also  be available with visiting Indigenous UWA students from the Pilbara and local high school students participating  in ‘hands-on' classroom activities, including UWA's ‘Finance for Life' online program.)

Full itinerary

Karratha
School visit - St Luke's College - Monday 1 July, 9.45am
School visit - Karratha Senior High School - Tuesday 2 July, 8.40am
Leaders' Luncheon with Winthrop Professor David Day: 'Leadership, Practice, and Human Potential' - Tuesday 2 July, 12.00pm

Newman
School visit - Newman Senior High School - Wednesday 3 July, 9.15am

Port Hedland
School visit - Hedland Senior High School - Friday 5 July, 8.00am
Leaders' Luncheon with Winthrop Professor Peter Hartley: 'Why is the Resources Sector Different?' - Friday 5 July, 12.00pm

Media opportunities
Limited media places available at the leaders' luncheons by request only.
Media interviews will be available with selected UWA students and staff.

UWA Gives Back
The UWA Gives Back Pilbara Tour is run by the UWA Business School as part of the University's Centenary celebrations. The Tour aims to encourage high school students to consider tertiary studies as well as stimulate high-level debate on important regional issues. Taking place from 1-5 July 2013, the Pilbara Tour is supported by BHP Billiton, Woodside and Resource Capital Funds.

Media references

Verity Chia (UWA Business School)  (+61 8)  6488 1346
Michael Sinclair-Jones (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 3229  /  (+61 4) 00 700 783