Macquarie Technology Group cofounders David and Aidan Tudehope have been honoured as the 2023 Pearcey Medallists for their life’s work in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry.
The annual awards, named after the late ICT industry pioneer Dr Trevor Pearcey, celebrated their 25th anniversary by inducting engineer Professor Jean Armstrong and WiseTech Global founder Richard White into the Pearcey Hall of Fame.
Culture Amp founder and CEO Didier Elzinga received the Pearcey National Entrepreneur Award.
Pearcey Foundation chair, Wayne Fitzsimmons said it was a special year marking the 25th anniversary of Dr Pearcey’s passing and 25 years of the Pearcey Medal, which recognises a distinguished lifetime of achievement and contribution to the development and growth of the Australian ICT industry.
“David and Aidan Tudehope are worthy recipients of our 2023 Pearcey Medal, for their success in innovating with technology and business models to disrupt the monopoly in the telecommunications sector, and then to expand successfully into allied technology services and products for customers in Australia and across Asia,” he said.
“The way in which David and Aidan have built a customer-centric culture and engaged with their communities for over 30 years to make a difference and inspire others caught the attention of our voting panel of all past medal recipients.”
The Tudehopes founded Macquarie Technology Group in 1992 (then Macquarie Telecom), building it into a fully integrated carrier, supplying voice, mobile, data networks and managed hosting solutions to business and government users in Australia and across Asia.
The duo were also inducted into the Pearcey Hall of Fame, alongside Professor Jean Armstrong and Richard White.
Professor Jean Armstrong is an internationally acknowledged expert in the field of high-speed data transmission and digital communication. Her research work on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing has led to commercialised patents and to this world-leading technology being commercialised in Australia.
Richard White built WiseTech Global into a his logistics software business worth $20 billion and was the 2016 recipient of the Pearcey Foundation’s NSW Entrepreneur Awards.
Fitzsimmons pointed to his support for a range of educational initiatives as well, including the annual National Computer Science Summer School for year 10-12 students, as well as the Girls Programming Network.
“The Pearcey Medal and Pearcey Hall of Fame are the players’ player awards of our ICT industry, with our medallists and inductees chosen each year by their peers in a nationwide vote,” he said.
“Each of this year’s recipients are rightly acknowledged for their lifetime achievements our industry, and as true visionaries and pioneers in their respective fields. It’s an honour to elevate David, Aidan, Jean and Richard to a permanent place in our Hall of Fame.”
Meanwhile, Didier Elzinga was selected from among seven state-based entrepreneur awards as the national winner.
Pearcey Foundation national judging coordinator Rick Harvey said the entrepreneur award recognises inspiring leadership, scale, impact, innovation and acclaim on the world stage.
“Didier is a fantastic example of an Australian entrepreneur who, over more than a decade, has tirelessly built an amazingly successful and significant global software company,” he said
“He is a great representative of the 2023 Pearcey State Entrepreneurs, all of whom have ‘taken a risk, made a difference, and are an inspiration’.”
The 2023 State Pearcey Entrepreneur Awards winners are:
ACT: Marcus Dawe, co-founder and CEO of MCi Carbon
NSW: Emma Weston, co-founder and CEO of AgriDigital
QLD: Yas Grigaliunas, founder and evangelist at Circonomy
SA: Dr Brenton Cooper, co-founder and CEO of Fivecast
TAS: Damian Ivereigh, founder and CEO, Launtel
VIC: Didier Elzinga, founder and CEO of Culture Amp
WA: Pia Turcinov AM, Fund WA director
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