New professor gets down to business
 New Appointments
A high school dropout who learned some hard business lessons early in life has been appointed to a leading entrepreneurial role at the 成人大片. Professor Noel Lindsay will take up his position as the new Director of the prestigious Education Centre for Innovation and Commercialisation () next month. His other hat will be Professor of Entrepreneurship and Commercialisation at the University. Describing his job as the "best in the world," Professor Lindsay said his varied background would help him steer ECIC to becoming one of the leading entrepreneurial research centres in the southern hemisphere within five years. "I have hands-on entrepreneurial experience, venture capital experience, as well as academic research and teaching experience," Professor Lindsay said. "In other words, I am a practical academic." At 16, he dropped out of high school to establish his first business in the clothing industry.
Initially very successful, the business failed due to his inexperience. "This taught me an important lesson about needing to know more - about business and dealing with people - and the importance of an education." Professor Lindsay went back to high school where he matriculated and then enrolled at the University of Queensland, graduating with a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) and subsequently gaining his Doctorate of Philosophy in Commerce. "In my early university days I worked in various sales-related jobs which taught me the importance of no matter how well-educated you are, if you cannot 'sell' - yourself, your product, your ideas - you will find it difficult to get ahead in life and in business." A stint with a firm of Chartered Accountants gave Professor Lindsay first-hand experience in corporate insolvency and an insight into why many businesses fail and how others can be turned around. His entrepreneurial pursuits have also seen him set up a number of businesses in Australia and overseas. Professor Lindsay plans to develop a strong research and teaching team at the ECIC and to offer a quality undergraduate program in entrepreneurship, innovation and commercialisation. He also intends to expand the doctoral program and introduce an Honours course. "Innovation and entrepreneurship are extremely important to our future. Many people think that anyone in business is entrepreneurial, but the fact is that most businesses are not. "Businesses that are growth-oriented, pro-active, create wealth, employment and are innovative, all tend to perform much better. "In Australia, we have some very successful entrepreneurial examples. However, we need to develop more of these people. I don't believe we have enough Australians with an enterprising 'can do' attitude and we need to address that," Professor Lindsay said. Story by Candy Gibson
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