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Maureen Klinkert and Richard Northam

Connecting with CAUDIT -- Getting the most out of CAUDIT Services and Agreements

CAUDIT is a national association which has as its members all of the Universities in Australia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific as well as CSIRO and AIMS.  CAUDIT seeks to advance the use of information technology in higher education by focusing on the following 6 strategic pillars:

  • Promoting Thought Leadership;
  • Strategic Procurement;
  • Professional Development & Sharing Knowledge;
  • Engaging our Membership;
  • Facilitating Sector Wide Services; and
  • Evidence Based Practice.

As part of delivering on these strategic pillars, CAUDIT has taken a leadership role on behalf of universities to help guide the national agenda in the area of eResearch; it has successfully aggregated procurement demand to deliver significant savings to the sector; and it has represented the collective view of the sector to various government agencies.  On the international stage CAUDIT has led the way with its work to benchmark the use of information technology in the higher education context.  In addition, CAUDIT offers a range of services which are available to all IT Staff from higher education institutions.  These services include, although are not limited to professional development opportunities in the form of Leadership training, domestic study tours which showcase best practice and helping with career development.  CAUDIT has also recently launched CAUDIT Connect, an online collaborative environment which is targeted at the 6500 IT staff in higher education to help them connect with their peers throughout higher education and facilitate the building of Communities of Practice which can provide a professional support network to all IT staff, regardless of their specialisation.

This presentation will give a full overview of CAUDIT’s strategy as well as highlighting key services which are available to its members and their IT staff.

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Maureen Klinkert's Biography 
Maureen Klinkert is the President of CAUDIT and the Director of IT Services at the University of the Sunshine Coast.  She has spent the past eight years implementing an appropriate ICT Strategy and Governance framework to lay the foundation for the implementation of future ICT and Information Systems in a young rapidly growing regional University, with a particular focus on eLearning, growing the University’s footprint and improving IT service delivery and has successfully fought to gain membership of AARNet (Australian Advanced Research Network) for the University.
She was born in South Africa where she obtained her degree in Mathematics & Computer Science at the University of the Witwatersrand. She has been in the Information Technology industry for 33 years and has worked on three continents (Africa, North America and Australia).
Maureen was awarded the Sunshine Coast Business Women’s Network Corporate/Government Business Woman of the Year Award in 2001.
She is the immediate past Chair of QUESTNet and has been actively involved in national projects to gain fibre connectivity to the Sunshine Coast and the University. She is a Fellow of the Australian Computer Society and is the Queensland Representative on the ACS National Women’s Board.

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Richard Northam's Biography 
Richard Northam is the Chief Executive Officer of the Council of Australian University Directors of Information Technology Inc. (CAUDIT) and serves as the Public Officer on the board of the Australian Access Federation Inc.  Richard has more than 25 years’ experience in the ICT industry and has worked in the Private, Federal Government and Higher Education Sectors in Australia.  Prior to working at CAUDIT, Richard was the IT Director at the Australian Defence Force Academy (UUNSW@ADFA).
Richard has presented at a number of conferences on topics including Cloud Computing, Federated Identity Access Management, IT Benchmarking, Collaboration, IT Leadership and represented the IT interests of the Australian Higher Education Sector at various international forums and meetings.  He has also co-authored an article in EDUCAUSE Review on “Cloud Computing and the Power to Choose”.  He is a member of the faculty of the African Leadership Institute, and a Director at Large and Secretary of EDUCAUSE which is a US based association akin to CAUDIT, which represents the best thinking in US higher education IT.
Richard holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Electronics) and is a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and the Australian Computer Society.  He has a keen interest in landscape photography, hiking, mountain biking, he is a 1st Dan Black Belt Instructor in Tae Kwon Do, and a qualified Snowboarding Instructor.