Always ambitious and looking for excitement, he could not resist the pioneering adventure of building a new post-secondary institution, Western Institute (WI), and no doubt also the persuasion of its director the charismatic Eric Lund. Geoff boldly resigned from FIT in late 1986 to become the inaugural head of the School of Business at WI. FIT and WI amalgamated in 1990 to form Victoria University of Technology (VUT).
Teaching was due to begin at the St Albans campus of WI in early 1987. In the preceding December, just before Christmas, the campus was a fenced-off building site occupied by builders’ huts. But with ingenuity and cunning, Lund ensured relocatable buildings were in place, furnished, and with power and water, all by February 1987.
Geoff ensured there was teaching staff for business. He started at WI in late 1986, working in the local shopping centre arcade. It was here, in the vacated hairdressing salon as the Business School, where he interviewed the first of the Business School staff. That first cohort of staff became known as the “arcadians”.
There were few experienced academics in Geoff’s appointees, but an extremely ambitious group, all with a passion for teaching, recognising the importance of education in providing access and equity, and creating opportunities that were scarce in Melbourne’s outer west.
The other feature of this group that really stood out was its cultural diversity. There were lecturers from every corner of the world – just as WI was planning to attract students from all parts of the globe. There was an explicit early attention to ethnic, cultural and gender diversity. Geoff had clear values on issues of access, equity and diversity – values he looked for in his recruits. Actually, because of Geoff having made those academic appointments, there were many who thought Geoff had a lot to answer for. But those staff, generally young with limited experience, developed into outstanding academics, with several taking up senior appointments within what became Victoria University and at other universities.
Geoff’s proudest accomplishment in academia was his pride in the academic staff he recruited and mentored. He was a friend to many, supportive, providing guidance in a casual, conversational way. He was a talented team builder and the team was close. Others outside the team used less flattering language, describing the team as being “as thick as thieves”.
One of the students from that first intake in 1987 was Romana Garma, who is now an associate professor and dean of business at VU. Other students from that era went on to become partners of big four firms, and CEOs of substantial corporate enterprises.
Geoff was initially head of the School of Business but within about a year at Western Institute became associate director. Over the following years, under the leadership of Eric Lund, the institute grew, sometimes doubling in size in a year, adding campuses at Melton, Werribee, Sunbury, and Derrimut. Geoff played a key role in this. The breadth and levels of course offerings grew across vocational and higher education. WI was readying to introduce postgraduate offerings just as the proposed amalgamation of WI, FIT, and RMIT was being set for implementation in 1990.
In those several years of WI’s independent existence, Geoff went from being head of School of Business, to associate director and acting deputy director.
The culture of WI was unique among tertiary educational institutions. It combined vocational education and higher education to break down boundaries between the sectors, facilitate access to education, create opportunities and encourage a work environment where collaboration was fostered, and diversity of staffing was valued in both ethnicity and gender. There were female heads of school and female heads of department. Geoff was passionate about these values.
In the lead-up to the 1990 amalgamation of WI, FIT and RMIT, several working parties were established to work through the details. RMIT withdrew from the amalgamation just before the final deadline. Geoff served on several those working parties.
When VUT was formed in 1990, Geoff became a foundation member of the professoriate. Later, in 2005 the “T” was dropped from “VUT” to become Victoria University. Across those intervening years, VUT continued to grow; it developed a city presence and grew its international offshore presence dramatically. Geoff was part of these initiatives. Among these activities, Geoff served a period as director of the Werribee campus, which has since continued to develop its biotech focus.
As an academic and institutional leader, Geoff continued to pursue his research and training interests. He was known for his work in providing financial literacy training to union leaders through the Trade Union Training Authority and directly in industry, for example, union leaders at ACI in the west of Melbourne. He also engaged in public sector accounting work including the drafting of a report for the Estimates Committee of the Victorian Parliament, and the conduct of a ministerial inquiry. Geoff’s research interests in accounting reflected his deep awareness of the political significance of accounting and accounting information, hence his interest in issues such as trade union training, triple bottom-line reporting, and other social issues.
Geoff joined FIT in 1977 and by the time he left he had completed 30 years of service across FIT, WI, VUT and VU, before formally retiring in November 2007. His retirement was short-lived, immediately taking up an appointment with Melbourne Institute of Technology, a private education provider, established by one of Geoff’s former postgraduate students at VU, Shesh Ghale, who came to Australia from Nepal.
Just as he had made a major contribution to the development of Western Institute, and to the early life of the new VUT, and VU, Geoff made a significant contribution to the development of the Melbourne Institute of Technology. He was appointed as a professor and held the role of director of the master of professional accounting from 2006-2016. While having nominally moved into his retirement phase, Geoff found himself as acting head of the MIT Business School in 2015-2016.
Geoff was popular with his MIT postgraduate students, in particular, they loved his postgraduate accounting research unit, and his mentoring of them as researchers. Some of his MIT students are now staff members at MIT.
His other professional contributions included roles in the governance of other professions, as a member of the Psychology Board of Australia and the Nurses Board of Australia.
Geoff’s colleagues, apart from recognising his significant achievements as a leader, particularly his contribution to the development of WI, remember him as being a likeable and down-to-earth fellow. He placed great emphasis on developing the team around him and was driven by his concern for those with less access to opportunity, and the value he put on education.
He was immensely proud of his two sons. Andrew, a fine cricketer, has pursued a horticultural career, while Michael’s skills in teaching the humanities emulated his own passion for teaching. When Michael took up history as his discipline, Geoff was pleased he had as a history teacher, Phillip Deery, a friend of the family, and former colleague of Heather’s at Eltham College; Phillip later became an emeritus professor.
Geoff’s professional life has left quite a legacy; not just his contribution to institutionally building post-secondary education in the west, but most importantly building people – a generation of academics, educational administrators, and graduates.
Like the discipline of accounting he professed, Professor Geoffrey George was a true Renaissance person. He would have fitted well into 15th-century Florence, the place where accounting as we know it had its origins. He understood how to cultivate talent, how to bring out the best in others, and how to build a better society through the shared vision of what makes us more rounded people.
He will be fondly remembered, and greatly missed, by his family, friends, and work colleagues.
Ian George is Geoffrey’s older brother. Professor Colin Clark is a Victoria University mentee and former colleague. Emeritus Professor Phillip Deery and Professor Rob Pascoe Dean Laurette are acknowledged for their contribution.
