OBITUARY

Terry Cutler died on 03/07/2020.

Dr Terrence Austin Cutler FTSE FAHA was a major contributor to public policy across an extraordinarily wide range of areas – from the humanities and arts to telecommunication, science, innovation and design.

Not only was he interested in these areas, he sought to build relationships between them. His colleagues describe him as creative, complex and conscientious.

Dr Cutler was born in 1948 and began his career in 1975 with Telecom Australia (now Telstra) as an analyst in the national telecommunications planning branch. This team was behind Telecom’s decision to become one of the first digital data networks in the 1980s.

He went on to become the executive director, Corporate Strategy, overseeing major regulatory change before leaving in 1991 to establish his own advisory company, Cutler & Company.

In 2002 he was appointed to the board of CSIRO – a role he held until 2012 and which combined his interests in public policy, good business practice and corporate governance.

During this period he also chaired the Federal Government’s review of the National Innovation System, which culminated in the report Venturous Australia. In his covering letter to the minister he wrote, “Innovation is not the problem; it is the answer. Innovation is not the opportunity; it is the imaginative response to opportunities.”

Dr Cutler also generously devoted his time and expertise to the arts and education sectors.

He was president of the Australian Centre for the Moving Image from 2002- 2005 and chair of the Australia Council from 2001-2002. He also served as a director of Cinemedia, Film Victoria, Opera Australia, The Council of the Victorian College of the Arts, the Melbourne-based contemporary dance company Chunky Move and the Library Board of Victoria.

The breadth of Dr Cutler’s contribution to Australian public policy saw him elected fellowships to the Institute of Public Administration (2003), the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (2008) and the Australian Academy of the Humanities (2010).

He died in July 2020, aged 72.