Committee

Chris Golis is an alumni of Sidney Sussex who matriculated in 1964. He read Part I Natural Sciences and Part II Economics. At Sidney Sussex he gained college colours at Rugby and won a 5 bump oar. He was President of the Junior Common Room in his final year. Since leaving Cambridge he has obtained an MBA (with distinction) in 1973 from the London Business School and the ASX prize for Course Dux in the Diploma Course of the Securities Insitute of Australia. He has worked both in the Information Technology industry (finishing as a divisional general manager) and in Financial Services (finishing as a venture capitalist for 23 years). He is now semi-retired and developing a third career as a speaker and trainer as Australia's expert in practical Emotional Intelligence based on his published books: Empathy Selling—New Sales Techniques for the 21st Century and The Humm Handbook: Lifting Your Level of Emotional Intelligence. He has sat on some 30 boards of listed and unlisted companies, is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and the Australian Institute of Managment. Chris was elected Treasurer of the Cambridge Society in 2007 and Chairman in 2008.

In 2005, Dr Rybak graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy from Cambridge University, Faculty of Law (Peterhouse). Her doctoral thesis, supervised by Professor Simon Deakin, entitled “Arrow, Sen and Stakeholders: Towards an Interdisciplinary Examination of Take-over Regulation”, considers legal and economic theory, and more specifically aspects of corporate and administrative law. Her recent publication in an international peer reviewed journal offers an inter-disciplinary explanation of the firm: “On the Logical Difficulties, Philosophy, and the TCE Explanation of the Firm”, Review of Social Economy (Routledge, London 2009).

Dr Rybak is the inaugural Director of Research at the Federal Court of Australia. The Director of Research is responsible to the Principal Registrar/CEO and ultimately the Chief Justice for the management of the Federal Court’s Research Directorate. The Director is a member of the Principal Registry’s Senior Management with reporting responsibility to the Policy and Planning Committee. The primary role of the Director is to provide research leadership and management of a team of Research Assistants, to support and assist judges nationally so as to enable the earliest possible delivery of judgments. This includes undertaking more complex legal research in the Court’s broad jurisprudence, preparing high quality submissions on novel questions of law, and providing judgment writing assistance on significant Federal Court cases. Notably, the Director undertakes work for Federal Court Judges nationally. Her research leadership includes designing the Court’s research programme and developing highly skilled research teams in specialised areas of Federal Court jurisprudence.

Previous to her appointment at the Court, Dr Rybak was an academic at the Department of Law, Macquarie University, with research and teaching leadership in Administrative and Constitutional Law, Competition and Consumer Protection Law and Contracts. In addition, Dr Rybak has been an Associate to a Deputy President of the Commonwealth Administrative Appeal Tribunal. A Cambridge scholar and academic, with extensive management experience, Dr Rybak brings a strong pedagogical and collegial approach to her work.

After graduating in Chemical Engineering from Sydney University, Robert Wilson undertook a PhD in Chemical Engineering at Cambridge from 1960 to 1963, as a member of Pembroke College. He subsequently returned to Australia and worked at CSR Limited for 29 years in sugar, building materials and corporate management. Along the way, he also acquired an MBA from the University of New South Wales. At the beginning of 1990, a modest career switch saw Robert take up the position of Executive Director of Austroads, the Australian and New Zealand association of road and road transport authorities, devoted to research, best practice and national and international harmonisation. Austroads activities are concerned with the full spectrum of social, economic, environmental and safety issues in the road and road transport sectors within an overall sustainable transport, demographic and land use context. Since retiring from Austroads at the end of 2001, Robert has continued in a part time capacity as Executive Advisor to the President of the World Road Association (PIARC) whose activities mirror those of Austroads on a global scale. As the premier international association with 110 member countries, PIARC is the principal body for government to government contact, information transfer and technological exchange on policy, innovation and best practice in the full spectrum of road and road transport issues worldwide. Robert has been a member of the Cambridge Society of NSW for a very long time. He has been a committee member since 2002 and was Chairman of the Society for three years from 2003 to 2006.