A memorable celebration for the Australian Accounting Hall of Fame 2025 Awards Ceremony

Colin Ferguson portrait unveiling

It was an honour to unveil a new portrait of the late Professor Colin Ferguson with his family in attendance. Professor Ferguson was instrumental in the creation of the Hall of Fame and is remembered as a much admired and valued colleague at the University of Melbourne.

His portrait was painted by Evert Ploeg, one of Australia’s foremost portraitists who draws influence from the masters of the Dutch Golden Age. It depicts a casually dressed Colin sitting on giant timber jigsaw pieces, emblematic of his capacity for making connections and bringing people and ideas together. The artwork was warmly received.

2025 Colin Ferguson Oration

This year’s Colin Ferguson Oration was delivered by Associate Professor Geoff Burrows, Principal Fellow, and past Head, of the Department of Accounting. He launched his latest book, a commissioned history of the Hall of Fame, Excellence Rewarded: A History of the Australian Accounting Hall of Fame 2015–2024, published by Melbourne University Press.

Associate Professor Burrows' oration served as the formal launch speech, highlighting several of the main events and features of the Hall of Fame’s history. He cleverly used a bar chart to show the demographic profile of Hall of Fame members by decade of birth and gender to capture a century of achievement, with birth dates ranging between the endpoints of the 1870s and the 1970s. The distribution was dominated by the 1940s and 1950s cohorts which largely comprised of academics, standard-setters and regulators, who have participated in the globalisation of accounting regulation, and thereby generated major national and international reputations.

On the question of gender, he said the increased female representation in the Hall over the years reflected an increase in the number of women studying accounting at a tertiary level. Associate Professor Burrows juxtaposed data from today to the 1970s to show these changes. Fifty years ago, few women chose to study accounting and many opted for careers in secondary teaching after graduation whereas today, women now have a slight majority in enrolments and professional memberships.

Associate Professor Burrows also touched on other aspects of representation in the Hall, considering those who may be missing because they fell outside of dimensions such as time (the 19th-century founders of the Australian profession), occupational sector (public sector and public practice), and geographical (states other than Victoria and NSW).

He concluded by praising those colleagues, the worthy recipients, and the two accounting professional bodies who have created what is a wonderful celebration of excellence in accounting. Long may it continue.

Hall of Fame inductions

Following the oration, the Director of the Hall, Dr Phillip Cobbin, conducted the formal inductions which comprised citations being read by nominators, responses from inductees and the presentation of scrolls to each inductee by Associate Professor Burrows.

• Catherine Livingstone AC is one of Australia’s most highly respected business leaders and was described as its most highly influential female director by the Australian Shareholders Association. She is a Chartered Accountant known for her contributions to accounting, corporate governance, science, innovation, and education. Her career demonstrates the power of a foundation in accounting ethics, knowledge and skills can provide when making contributions to the economy and society across diverse sectors and roles.

• Ian Mackintosh was posthumously inducted into the Hall for his significant contribution to the accounting profession for many decades, principally in the development and application of financial and non-financial reporting and disclosure, across both the public and private sectors, nationally and internationally. He sadly passed away in 2023 and was represented on the night by his son, Jonathan. He is remembered by his colleagues as principled, perceptive, highly intelligent, and unafraid of putting the public interest ahead of commercial pressures. He was a dedicated and passionate leader who had an enormous impact on the international financial reporting landscape.