Professor Dudley Roach, CEO of the CQU-based Rail CRC, has won the Professional Manager category of the Management Excellence Awards, staged by the Rockhampton Region of the Australian Institute of Management.

The presentations were held at the Rockhampton Heritage Village on Friday, September 9..

Other finalists in the Professional Manager category included Dr Jeanne McConachie, Director of CQU's Division of Teaching and Learning Services.

Former CQU Council member Paul Bell, who is the president of the Australian Local Government Association and the Queensland Local Government Association, received the CQ Medal for Leadership in Management, which is presented by CQU's Faculty of Business & Law.

The evening was chaired by Dr Lee Di Milia, who is the Head of the School of Management at CQU.

Professor Roach oversees a complex $57 million business which is involved in 39 major research projects at universities and rail organisations across Australia.

According to an awards press release, he said the greatest advice he had received was to plan your business decisions so that you always take the responsibility for your actions, whatever the outcome.

The achievement which has given Professor Roach the greatest pleasure is the identification of, and meeting the needs and expectations of, a diverse range of stakeholders by the Rail CRC.

This was followed by the development of a research culture in the Australian rail industry, and the provision of pathways and opportunities to further the development and training of engineers.

Professor Roach has adopted a saying from Jack Welsh, CEO of General Electric, who said "if the rate of change on the outside is greater that the rate of change on the inside, the end is nigh" when outlining what he would aspire to be as a leader.

He envisages the greatest challenge facing Australian managers as "managing the rapidly changing nature of business - changing markets, globalisation, rate of change of technology and the increased speed of IT and communications".

Prof Roach's aspiration when he grew up was to be a chief executive in academe. He possessed a "lifelong love of learning and natural curiosity, and a view that academic endeavours through publication and peer review gave the purest assessment of personal capability".

In his current position, Professor Roach is realising his ambition to have the greatest possible influence on business and entrepreneurial academia.

Professor Roach will now be a finalist at the State Management Excellence Awards in Brisbane on Friday November 4.

There will also be an opportunity to hear Professor Roach and the winners of other Rockhampton management award categories speak at an AIM meeting in Rockhampton on Wednesday October 19.

ENDS.

For further information contact Rick Palmer on 0417 311 243.