David Travers

David Travers is a businessman from Sydney, Australia.

Education

Travers attended Cleve Area School and then Flinders University and Harvard University. His family arrived in Australia from Kilkenny, Ireland and Normandy, France in 1848[1]. After five generations of farming, Travers' father encouraged him to leave the land and obtain a tertiary education.[2]

Career

Travers began his career as a cadet journalist at Fairfax Media in 1988. He left in 1998, after rising to editor-in-chief of its South Australian agricultural division.

He left Fairfax to become Chief of Staff to the South Australian Liberal Deputy Premier Hon Graham Ingerson. After Ingerson resigned for misleading Parliament, Travers moved to the public service, where he spent more than a decade. He held senior executive roles in the Department of Education, Training and Employment, Department of Education and Children's Services, the Office of the Commissioner for Public Employment and the Department of the Premier and Cabinet.

When the Labor Party leader Mike Rann won the 2002 State Election, Travers was invited to act as Chief of Staff to new member of parliament Jane Lomax-Smith. In 2004 Rann tasked Travers with establishing Carnegie Mellon University, Australia.

He moved to London in 2006 as Deputy Agent-General for South Australia, where he drove the state's foreign investment in renewable energy, education and research, working with Acciona, Babcock, Bank of England, BTG plc, International Power and Ultra Electronics. He also developed agricultural projects in Russia. He worked under Agents General Maurice de Rohan OBE and then Bill Muirhead AM.

He joined University College London in 2010, as both CEO of its new UCL Australia and commencing on UCL's Qatar board in Doha. He quit the university suddenly in early 2015 after the Provost Michael Arthur unexpectedly announced plans to close the international campus program.

With four partners he founded boutique corporate advisory firm VUCA.

He is a non-executive director of Scope Global[3] and Byogy Renewables[4].

Travers owns a vineyard and winery Bourke & Travers[5] in South Australia’s Clare Valley wine region,[6] selling winegrapes to Penfolds. He chairs his family's agriculture property trust and was the founding chairman of Sundrop Farms, which brought private equity firm KKR into Australian horticulture in 2014.[7]

Travers is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.[8]

Political views

Travers supports the deregulation of Australia's tertiary education sector[9] and has encouraged debate on the future possibility of nuclear power in Australia.[10] Travers has said that "nuclear energy must form part of the future [energy] solution, but gas and renewables must play a part in this transition, so politicians need to get serious, show some courage and take responsibility for leading this debate, not shutting it down."[11] Under Travers' leadership, UCL Australia's researchers investigated nuclear fuel leasing potential[12] and the possibility of nuclear submarines for Australia.[13] Travers believes that climate change is real, is mostly due to human activity and will have adverse impacts. In June 2013, while speaking on the subject at a CEDA event he said "unless we are prepared to move back to caves and burn candles (adding levels of personal CO2) I don’t accept the view that Australia could be completely powered by renewable energy. It’s hopelessly unrealistic and impractical." He believes that Australia should do more with its "natural advantages" including increasing "support for plant functional genome, GMO, nano manipulation of seeds, nano-technology for interactive agricultural chemicals, or chemical release packaging."[11]

Honours

Travers is a former Young South Australian of the Year and Young Australian of the Year finalist. News Limited listed him as one of Australia’s top 40 future leaders.[14]

References

  1. ↑ Swiggum, Sue. "Passenger List - Storm Cloud, Plymouth to Adelaide, 1858". www.theshipslist.com. Retrieved 2017-10-07.
  2. ↑ Travers, David (2014-12-22). "Occasional Address, UniSA Graduation Ceremony Adelaide Convention Centre, 22 December 2014" (PDF). University of South Australia. Retrieved 2015-06-13.
  3. ↑ "Our Board – Scope Global". www.scopeglobal.com. Retrieved 2017-10-07.
  4. ↑ "Subscribe | adelaidenow". www.adelaidenow.com.au. Retrieved 2017-10-07.
  5. ↑ "Home - Bourke & Travers Wine". Bourke & Travers Wine. Retrieved 2017-10-07.
  6. ↑ "Scope Global welcomes new Board Member". www.scopeglobal.com. Retrieved 2015-06-13.
  7. ↑ "KKR | KKR Partners with Sundrop Farms - Groundbreaking Arid Climate Agribusiness". media.kkr.com. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
  8. ↑ "Mr David Travers - Student life - University of South Australia". www.unisa.edu.au. Retrieved 2015-06-13.
  9. ↑ Trounson, Andrew (2014-07-09). "UCL 'running ruler' over local expansion". The Australian. Retrieved 2015-06-13.
  10. ↑ McGuire, Michael (2013-07-28). "Top 100 ideas to grow South Australia". The Advertiser. Retrieved 2015-05-30.
  11. 1 2 "The Critical Decade - The time for adaption is now". www.ucl.ac.uk. Retrieved 2015-10-14.
  12. ↑ "Inaugural UCL Research Tasting Night a great success!". www.ucl.ac.uk. Retrieved 2015-06-13.
  13. ↑ "2014 annual report". www.ucl.ac.uk. Retrieved 2015-06-13.
  14. ↑ UniSA. "The University of South Australia: Home". www.unisa.edu.au. Retrieved 2017-10-07.
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