Former Pro-Chancellor and Member of Council, University of Technology Sydney
Ceremony: 9 May 2019, 2:00pm - Faculty of Law
About the Speaker
Mr Robert Kelly was appointed to the UTS Council in 2006, although his engagement with UTS dates back to the mid-1970s. Mr Kelly’s service to the university has been exemplary. Mr Kelly’s final four-year term on Council ended on 31 October 2018 and represented the maximum time permitted under the University of Technology Sydney Act 1989 (NSW).
Mr Kelly was first elected by Council to the role of Pro-Chancellor in 2010. He was re-elected to the role in 2012, 2014 and 2016. He has fulfilled all elements of the role with distinction, including the important ceremonial function as presiding Chancellor at graduation ceremonies in Australia. He has also represented the Chancellor at offshore graduation ceremonies in both Hong Kong and Shanghai.
In addition to his service as Pro-Chancellor, Mr Kelly was a member of several Council committees between 2006 and 2018. He was chair of the UTS Audit and Risk Committee and chair/alternate chair of the Joint Subcommittee of Audit and Risk Committee and Finance Committee from 2006. He was also a member of the Governance Committee and the Nominations Committee.
Mr Kelly’s leadership of the Audit and Risk Committee was outstanding. During his tenure as chair, the committee discharged its responsibilities with utmost diligence and professionalism. Despite considering many complex issues, often of a highly confidential nature, Mr Kelly always performed his role with sensitivity and ensured that all key stakeholders were treated with respect. Mr Kelly’s leadership ensured that the committee considered matters brought forward by management with mutual trust.
At all times Mr Kelly demonstrated an absolute commitment to probity, ethics and good governance. He brought wisdom, rigour and intellect to all matters considered by Council and its committees for which he was either chair or a member.
Mr Kelly was admitted to practice as a solicitor in 1974 and was called to the Bar in 2000. He was one of the foundation faculty members and first sub-dean of the Faculty of Law at the New South Wales Institute of Technology (now UTS) from 1982 to 1983. He played an important role in the formative years of the faculty and, in particular, in developing the relationship between the faculty and the legal profession.
Mr Kelly’s career encompasses a diverse range of legal, academic and management positions. These include head of department, continuing legal education at the College of Law; general counsel, company secretary and an executive director of George Weston Foods Limited; and director of corporate education at the Australian Graduate School of Management. He was a member and then chair of the Law Foundation of New South Wales, the legal member and then deputy president of the New South Wales Board of the Medical Board of Australia and a member of the National Health and Medical Research Council.
Mr Kelly has played a crucial part in the regulation of the medical profession in New South Wales. He has been a member of many tribunals dealing with complaints against medical practitioners, the chair or a member of professional standards committees and performance review panels, and involved in urgent proceedings dealing with the conduct, performance and impairment of medical practitioners.