Durie to step down as AIIA CEO

The Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) has announced that its CEO of six years, Rob Durie, will step down from the organisation in December.

AIIA chair, Peter Kazacos, said Durie had advised the board last week that he would not be renewing his contract – due to expire at the year’s end – with the industry body.

“Rob indicated that after 17 years with AIIA he feels it’s time for a new challenge,” Kazacos said.

Durie joined the AIIA in 1989 in an industry development role in and was made CEO in 1999.

Kazacos would now take an executive role in the AIIA and work with Durie over the next six months to find a replacement CEO. This process was likely to take a number of months, he said.

“It will be very difficult to find someone, as Rob has a very well developed network in government and industry,” he said. “We also need [someone who can] keep the right balance between our multinational and SMB members.”

Kazacos said the AIIA board was made up of a number of individuals capable of filling the CEO role, but ruled himself out as a potential candidate.

“I enjoy the chairman role and the level of involvement, but it is not what I want to do full-time,” he said.

Kazacos said Durie had overseen a period of growth in the organisation’s membership and influence on industry issues such as liability and intellectual property. However, much work remained to be done.

“At the Federal level I don’t think the government is taking ICT as seriously as it should be,” he said. “[They] need to look at places like Ireland and India that have tax initiatives in order to encourage greater ICT investment.”