Celebrating a venture capital pioneer
Meet UQ's latest Honorary Doctorate recipient
Every graduation ceremony, UQ recognises exceptional individuals in our community through Honorary Awards, including Honorary Doctorates.
Each awardee has not only achieved an outstanding level of success within their field but has fostered meaningful change in the wider community through their leadership, courage and hard work.
The July 2022 Honorary Doctorate recipient is Bob Christiansen – a pioneer in Australian technology venture capital, proud father of twin daughters and an avid scuba diver.
UQ Deputy Head of School of Business Professor Tyler Okimoto, UQ Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Deborah Terry AO, Honorary Doctorate recipient Bob Christiansen and UQ Chancellor Peter Varghese AO.
UQ Deputy Head of School of Business Professor Tyler Okimoto, UQ Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Deborah Terry AO, Honorary Doctorate recipient Bob Christiansen and UQ Chancellor Peter Varghese AO.
Mr Christiansen (Bachelor of Economics ’71, Postgraduate Diploma of Information Processing ’73, Doctor of Letters honoris causa ’22) believes he has a ‘sense of duty’ to stay connected and give back to UQ. He has done so for many years through multiple roles, particularly through UQ’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience, the Faculty of Business, Economics and Law (BEL) and the iLab Accelerator.
The University is fortunate to benefit from his wealth of knowledge and experience in technology innovation and entrepreneurship both nationally and internationally. Under Mr Christiansen’s expert leadership, the firm he co-founded, Southern Cross Venture Partners, became one of Australia’s largest technology venture capital firms.
Contact sat down with Mr Christiansen earlier this month to learn more about his incredible career – from what qualities you need as a successful entrepreneur, to daily rituals and more.
Q: What are your thoughts on mentoring?
A: Is having a mentor worthwhile? Absolutely, no question. And it’s as important to have an industry mentor as well as an academic mentor. When I did my postgraduate study in computer science, one of my lecturers, Richard Kelly, became a mentor. Sadly, he passed away last year. I also had the privilege of being mentored by James Sokoll who was the Head of Engineering at the Prentice Computer Centre, where I worked after I graduated. I was thrilled that he was at the award ceremony to see me receive my Honorary Award.
The Prentice Computer Centre in the 1970s.
The Prentice Computer Centre in the 1970s.
Both James and Richard had a significant impact on my career. They instilled in me the value of mentorship. Over the course of my career, I was a mentor to several people, and was instrumental in setting up up an industry mentoring program as part of my role on the IMB advisory board. It’s been a consistent passion of mine throughout my career.
Q: What makes a successful entrepreneur?
A: Entrepreneurs tend to be driven and passionate. They are terms used a lot around entrepreneurship, but it’s so true. They must be persistent – particularly in the face of a lot of people telling them they’re crazy. That requires, in some ways, a certain personality type. You can teach entrepreneurship skills, but that only gets you half the distance. You must then have those personality traits.
While these personality traits make you a successful entrepreneur when it comes to starting and building a company, they’re sometimes the very traits that make it difficult for you to then lead a mature company. The characteristics that make people successful as startup entrepreneurs can make it difficult for those personalities to be part of a corporate structure. There’s only a small percentage of successful large tech companies still being led by the people who founded them. Of course, many then go on to found more companies.
Q: What are some words to live by?
A: Back yourself! If you were to speak with my daughters, they would say that was one thing I constantly reminded them of. It sounds easy, but so often people underrate themselves. They look at a new opportunity and don’t think they’re quite qualified, or they don’t think they’ve got the necessary experience. But more likely than not, they do.
Even if you don’t know everything about the job, back yourself to be smart enough and to work hard enough to figure it out. I’ve met so many people who have been held back in their careers by not backing themselves, even though, in my opinion, they were extremely capable. In my career, I’ve often hired people into positions that others might have thought they weren’t yet qualified for. In almost every case, they never let me down and went on to be excellent performers.
Honorary Doctorate recipient Bob Christiansen
Honorary Doctorate recipient Bob Christiansen
Honorary Doctorate recipient Bob Christiansen
Honorary Doctorate recipient Bob Christiansen
Q: As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A: I always wanted to be an engineer of some kind. In high school, I realised I enjoyed mathematics. When I graduated from uni, I thought I wanted to be an actuary, but felt I needed to know a little more about computers because I had had some limited exposure to them. I decided to do the postgraduate course in computing and fell in love with computers, so I never pursued my actuarial aspirations.
Q: What’s your daily ritual?
A: Every day I get up at 5am and read about five different local and international newspapers to try and form my own views as to what’s happening in the world. That’s been a ritual for a large part of my life. Of course, I now get them online – I like to joke about the fact I’m one of the very few Baby Boomers who knows more about computers than their Millennial children. There aren’t many of us. I’ve been working with computers now for over 50 years and I’m still a geek.
Q: What's your favourite hobby?
A: I got my scuba diving qualifications in 1968. I’ve logged well over 500 dives. I spend much of the year up in the Whitsundays now that I’m kind of retired. A lot of people probably don’t know this about me. One of my favourite diving spots is near Rainbow Beach – it’s a magical dive site called Wolf Rock and it is a breeding ground for grey nurse sharks.
Q: What are you most proud of?
A: I’m most proud of my daughters, who are identical twins and were born in the US. One lives there still, in New York, where she works for Pfizer, and the other lives in Sydney working for a tech startup. They’ve both been very successful in their careers. I look back now, and think one of the greatest things to be proud of in my life is having daughters who are successful and make great contributions to society.
Honorary Doctorate recipient Bob Christiansen with his family. From left: Bob's daughter Liz Pollock, Bob Christiansen, wife Lorraine Christiansen and brother Keith Christiansen.
Honorary Doctorate recipient Bob Christiansen with his family. From left: Bob's daughter Liz Pollock, Bob Christiansen, wife Lorraine Christiansen and brother Keith Christiansen.
Q: How did you stay connected to UQ?
A: I was away from Australia for around 24 years, mostly in the US and, when I moved back to Australia, one thing that had struck me was the very little connection Australian graduates retained with their universities. In the US, kids who go through college retain a lifelong relationship with the institution, which I believe strengthens both the individual and the institution.
I decided I would try to put something back into UQ, having been inspired by what I had observed with my friends and colleagues in the US and their ongoing relationship with their colleges. I had also developed a realisation of the world-class quality of the education I had received at UQ.
Almost from the first day I moved back, I reconnected with UQ. I became Executive in Residence in BEL, but it’s only in the last couple of months that I’ve started taking stock of the things I’ve been involved with at UQ. From the UQ Business School’s Enterprise Business Plan Competition over several years, the iLAb Accelerator from its inception and the IMB Advisory Board. I’ve found each to be personally rewarding and that I was able to make a useful contribution.
I encourage graduates to stay in touch with the University – to not just wash their hands and leave, but to come back for events and stay connected and involved. It benefits them and the institution. The University now provides many ways to do this as alumni and it is something I strongly urge you to do.
UQ ChangeMakers is your ticket to a world of new connections, mentoring opportunities and opened doors.
Join Bob and other UQ alumni on UQ ChangeMakers – our new platform for alumni, by alumni.
Built with Shorthand