Sir Eric Neal

The Torchbearer

Happy but financially constrained, The Honourable Sir Eric Neal’s childhood circumstances foreshortened his early education – but redoubled his passion for learning over the years that followed.

Sir Eric left school at the age of 16, but the fact that his family could not afford for him to stay in school helped to launch one of the great success stories of Australian business and cemented Sir Eric’s lifelong thirst for learning.

It was when he moved to the post of Chief Executive Officer of Boral Ltd in 1973 that he recognised the value of forging close links between universities and private enterprise.

“When we started working together, the academics realised that industry could use their services and would pay them for their work, while industry realised they had access to a whole range of people with skills and knowledge that they could never assemble themselves in an in-house research department,” Sir Eric said.

Since his time at Boral Sir Eric has held a range of posts, including Chancellor of Flinders from early 2002 to 2010, and he has garnered an astonishing number of titles and accolades. However, he has always emphasised the importance of ongoing learning to prepare for each new challenge.

“Education is even more important today than when I was young,” he said. “People take on roles today with the chance that in 20 or 30 years that role will have changed, or even disappeared.”

Sir Eric was the University’s first Chancellor from a business background, and he brought his passion for education opportunities and the application of knowledge to industry through closer links between universities and business – as well as the importance of his own discipline of engineering.

“The renaissance of engineering with the new Flinders building demonstrates the massive potential of engineering for the future,” he said.