Growing up in the seaside suburbs of Black Rock and Beaumaris, Geoff spent his summers on Red Bluff beach and winters at the family weekender in the Dandenongs. After graduating from St Bede’s College in 1958, he embarked on a career that allowed him to contribute to the evolving digital landscape.

On Joining Ampol Petroleum’s Trainee Executive Program and studying Commerce part-time at Melbourne University, he discovered punch-card equipment. This early exposure led him to joining International Computers (ICL) as a programmer. Five years later he was appointed state manager in Tasmania where he met my future wife, Jan, and developed a passion for real tennis.

After 10 years with ICL he enrolled in an Executive MBA at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. His research project on the application of computers in the restaurant industry led to a role at the Keg restaurant chain, where he developed a microcomputer-based system for food and beverage control, labour scheduling and the world’s first touchscreen point-of-sale system.

Capitalizing on this experience, he co-founded a company to develop a PC-based system named Squirrel. Through a network of dealers in the US and Canada, the company successfully targeted the table-service restaurant chains that were proliferating across North America. Forty years on, Squirrel Systems continues to operate from its headquarters in Vancouver.

After 17 years in Canada, now married with 2 children, Geoff and Jan decided to return to Australia, enjoying a 6-month European holiday along the way.

Driven by a desire to find an industry that hadn’t yet embraced digital technology, Geoff turned his attention to the media industry. In 1992, he established New Media Systems, later incorporated as New Media Sales, to capitalize on the transition from analogue to digital film and video. Targeting video production companies, television studios and sports stadiums, the company successfully navigated the industry’s transformation. The emergence of a local company, Blackmagic Design, as a global leader in the development of digital solutions, was instrumental in their success.

After thirty years at the forefront of the digital media evolution, Geoff sold the company and retired.

His recreational activities have included memberships in the Downhill Ski Club, Goswatt Ski Club, Real Tennis Clubs in Hobart and Melbourne, the Hobart Yacht Club, CYCA, Melbourne South Rotary, Bayside Bushwalking Club, Sandringham Club, Black Rock Sports Club, GoodLife Gym, Bayside U3A and Beaumaris RSL.