“The next time you feel really annoyed or frustrated at work, focus that heightened passion on the good things we are doing in the world and what you can do to make things work better to those ends. You are Flinders and you make it work well, or not.”

It is with that parting message that Ian Smith, Director, College Services for the College of Medicine of Public Health, turns his gaze to retirement this week and enjoying days that don’t start at 6am as they have ever since he entered the workforce in 1981.

Following 10 years with Flinders including the last five in his current role, Ian is packing up the shiny new 4WD and calling time on a career which has seen him wear many hats but admits that despite the hard work he has never had such a feeling of doing something that makes a real difference in the world as he has with the College.

“I think what will leave the most lasting impression is working with so many genuine and hard-working people who have talent, ambition and persistence, and do what they do for the right reasons,” Ian says.

“For me, the main reason I love Flinders is that it is making the world a better place – I mean actually doing that. Most other organisations I worked for didn’t even have this as a real aim but here we really make a difference to real people in a real way.

“Sometimes things happen in large organisations that are annoying or really frustrating, we’ve all experienced it but it’s worth getting past these.

“Large organisations have the resources and mix of skills to make big and important things happen, things smaller organisations just can’t do.

“By working in a large organisation, like Flinders, you get to be part of making those big and important things happen.”

The many hats of Ian Smith

In 1981 Ian began work at the Australian Mineral Development Laboratories (AMDEL) as a Design Engineer, his job, successfully designing the first computer narrow enough to go down a small diameter borehole for mineral exploration.

From there he went to CSIRO to work on speech recognition with his team demonstrating the first speech-operated telephone in 1984.

“I’ve been an Engineering Manager, Marketing Executive, CIO, Company Director, Ministerial advisor, Executive Director of Innovation, all sorts of other weird and wonderful titles, and finally Director, College Services.

“Of all my jobs, this one has been the most rewarding.”

 

Handing over the reins and looking to the future

Paying tribute to CMPH Vice President and Executive Dean Jonathan Craig and Mark Gregory, Vice-President (Corporate Services), for their “double the support, double the demand, double the appreciation, and double the helpful advice” Ian says he is happy to hand the reins over to the incoming Mark Clayton.

And he can see there is more growth and diversification to come.

“If we can do more of the things we do well, we should. Not because it makes money (it probably doesn’t) but because it does more good,” Ian says.

“There are also some new things we can do well that are needed and connect with what we do now. We should begin some of these even if we are not sure about them – boldness has magic in it.”

With such a storied career in his rearview mirror, Ian is set to see a lot more of the Australian bush in that mirror as he embraces retirement and pursuing his passion for camping in a new set of wheels replacing the old ute he was known for driving to work at Flinders.

“You don’t retire that often. I have been employed continuously since 1981 and other than leave, I have gotten up every day at 6am and gone to work.

“I am having step change to retirement – 100% to 0% work. I guess it will feel like the weekend is very long.

“It’s time for me to do more of some of the other things that I am keen on. I love bush camping, owner-building, writing apps, making things in the shed, and hanging out with my grandchildren.”