Jim Ferguson (public servant)

Last updated

Jim Ferguson
Born
James Alexander Ferguson

1940 or 1941 [1]
Sydney, Australia
Alma materUniversity of Sydney
Occupation(s)Public servant, diplomat

James Alexander Ferguson is an Australian former diplomat, senior public servant and sport administrator. He was executive director of the Australian Sports Commission between 1990 and 2001. [2]

Contents

Personal

He was born in Sydney 1940. Prior to an whilst competing his studies at the University of Sydney, he did a variety of jobs including jackaroo, taxi driver and publisher's editor. [3] His grandfather was Sir John Alexander Ferguson (1881-1969), a notable Australian judge and bibliographer. [4] Sir John's collection of Australiana was given to the National Library of Australia and forms the basis of the Library's Australian collection.

Australian Public Service

He worked for the Department of Foreign Affairs between 1966 and 1986. [3] During this period, he was posted overseas several times and held the position of Ambassador to Peru between 1981 and 1983. [1] [3] From 1986 to 1990, he was Head of the Tourism and Sport Division, Commonwealth Department of Arts, Sport, the Environment and Tourism. [3] From 1990 to 2001, he was executive director of the Australian Sports Commission (ASC). [3]

Sport

Whilst working in the Australian Government Department of the Arts, Sport, the Environment, Tourism and Territories, he played a role in the establishment of the new Australian Sports Commission as the government authority responsible for all sports development in Australia. [3] He became executive director of the Australian Sports Commission in 1990 replacing Ron Harvey. [3] He took over the ASC at a time when it had just completed the merger between the ASC and the Australian Institute of Sport and the Senate Inquiry into Drugs in Sport. In 1993, Australia won the right to host the 2000 Sydney Olympics and Paralympics. This resulted in the Australian Government announcing the Olympic Athlete Program (OAP) in 1994. He was responsible for implementing this six-year program which lead to major changes in Australia's elite sport system. The OAP program resulted in Australia from progressing from 27 medals at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics to a record 58 medals and fourth place on the medal tally at the Sydney Olympics. He left the Australian Sports Commission at the end of 2000 and was replaced by Mark Peters. On his departure from the ASC, Peter Bartels, ASC chairman stated "Jim’s contribution to the development of sport in Australia is immeasurable. The level of excellence now reached and the international standing of Australian sport is the best testament to Jim’s time at the ASC". [5] In December 2000, he was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for leadership of the Australian Sports Commission and Australian sport. In 2007, he published the book More than Sunshine & Vegemite : Success the Australian Way which documented the development of Australian sport for the period 1990 to 2000. [6] After leaving the Australian Sports Commission, he has been a President of the ACT Rugby Union and China Australia Sports Association. He has been a board member of the Australian Tourist Commission, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, World Youth Soccer Cup, World Masters Games. [3] He was a member of the Migration Review Tribunal. [3] In 2010, he became a board member of Boxing Australia, a position he held for 12 years until 2022 [7] and was commissioned by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to develop a plan to assist the Pacific Region through rugby union. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian Institute of Sport</span> Sports organisation in Australia

The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The institute's 66-hectare (163-acre) headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the Australian Sports Commission (ASC), part of the Australian Government under the Department of Health and Aged Care.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Ferguson (politician)</span> Australian politician

Martin John Ferguson is an Australian former Labor Party politician who was the Member of the House of Representatives for Batman from 1996 to 2013. He served as Minister for Resources and Energy and Minister for Tourism in the Rudd and Gillard governments from 2007 to 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian Olympic Committee</span> National Olympic Committee

The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) is the National Olympic Committee responsible for developing, promoting, and protecting the Olympic Movement in Australia. The AOC has the exclusive responsibility for the representation of Australia at the Olympic Games, the Youth Olympic Games and at Regional Games patronized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). All National Olympic Committees are constituents of the International Olympic Committee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sport in Australia</span> Overview of sports traditions and activities in Australia

Sport is an important part of Australia that dates back to the early colonial period. Australian rules football, rugby league, rugby union, association football, cricket and tennis are among the earliest organised sports in Australia. Sport has shaped the Australian national identity through events such as the Melbourne Cup and the America's Cup. Australia also holds the record for the largest attendance at a rugby union match; almost 110,000 spectators watched the Wallabies play the All Blacks in 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sports in the Philippines</span>

Sports in the Philippines is an important part of the country's culture. There are six major sports in the Philippines: basketball, boxing, tennis, football, billiards, and volleyball.

The Australian Sports Commission (ASC) is the Australian Government commission responsible for supporting and investing in sport in Australia. The Commission incorporates the Australian Institute of Sport. From 2018 to 2022, it was known as Sport Australia.

Roydon John Masters AM is an Australian sports journalist and former rugby league football coach. He is a sports columnist for the Sydney Morning Herald. He was a school teacher with an interest in team psychology who enjoyed some success as a schoolboy coach before embarking on a professional coaching career in the NSWRFL Premiership.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevan Gosper</span> Australian athlete and administrator (1933–2024)

Richard Kevan Gosper, AO was an Australian athlete who mainly competed in the 400 metres. He was a Vice President of the International Olympic Committee, and combined Chairman and CEO of Shell Australia. Gosper died on 19 July 2024, at the age of 90.

Paralympics Australia (PA) previously called the Australian Paralympic Committee (APC) (1998–2019) is the National Paralympic Committee in Australia for the Paralympic Games movement. It oversees the preparation and management of Australian teams that participate at the Summer Paralympics and the Winter Paralympics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greg Hartung</span> Australian sport administrator

Gregory Neil Hartung is a leading Australian and international sport administrator. He has an extensive and distinguished career in sport particularly in terms of administration and journalism. He was President of the Australian Paralympic Committee from 1997 to 2013 and served as vice-president of the International Paralympic Committee 2009–13.

Ted Harris, is an Australian businessman, director of companies, tennis commentator and sport administrator.

Mark Peters OAM is an Australian former baseball player, and sport administrator. From 2012 to 2018, Peters was the chief executive officer of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Corporation Organising Committee.

Boxing Australia Limited (BAL) is a governing body for the sport of amateur boxing in Australia. The Australian Sports Commission (ASC), Australian Olympic Committee (AOC), the Australian Commonwealth Games Association (ACGA), and World Boxing have recognized Boxing Australia as the National Sporting Organisation for amateur level boxing.

Perry Rothrock Crosswhite AM is a former Australian Olympic basketballer and leading sport administrator.

The organisation of sport in Australia has been largely determined by its Federal system of government – Australian Government and six states and two territories governments and local governments. All three levels play an important role in terms of funding, policies and facilities. Each major sport is managed by a national sports organisation, with state counterparts that manage community sporting clubs. Umbrella or peak organisations represent the interests of sports organisations or particular sport issues. Education sector plays a small role through universities and schools. Private sector's involvement is extensive in professional sport through facilities, club ownership and finance/sponsorship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of sport in Australia</span>

The history of sport in Australia dates back to the pre-colonial period of the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glenn Tasker</span> Australian sport administrator (1951–2019)

Glenn Robert Tasker was a leading Australian sport administrator particularly in swimming, tennis and the Paralympic movement. He was President of the Australian Paralympic Committee from 2013 to 2018.

Bruce Robert Mason OAM is a leading Australian sports scientist in the field of biomechanics. Between 1982 and 2014, he made a significant contribution to the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in the area of biomechanics, particularly in the sport of swimming.

Henry Alfred Gordon, was an Australian journalist, war correspondent, author, and historian of the Olympic Games. During his journalistic career, he served as editor of The Sun News-Pictorial, and editor-in-chief of The Herald and Weekly Times and Queensland Newspapers. From 1992 to 2015, he was the official historian of the Australian Olympic Committee.

Ju Ping Tian AM is a Chinese Australian gymnastics coach who was Head Coach of the Australian Women's Artistic Team and Australian Institute of Sport women's artistic program.

References

  1. 1 2 "Diplomatic postings". The Canberra Times. 1 August 1980. p. 7.
  2. ↑ "James Ferguson". It's an Honour. Archived from the original on 16 August 2017. Retrieved 16 February 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Bloomfield, John (2003). Australia's sporting success : the inside story. Sydney: UNSW Press. pp.  108. ISBN   0868405825.
  4. ↑ "John Alexander Ferguson: Preserving Our Past, Inspiring Our Future". Information Culture – A Journey of History website. Retrieved 16 February 2013.
  5. ↑ "Australian Sports Commission's New CEO Announced". Australian Sports Commission Media Release, 13 November 2000. Archived from the original on 29 March 2011. Retrieved 16 February 2013.
  6. ↑ Ferguson, Jim (2007). More than sunshine & vegemite : success the Australian way. Sydney: Halstead Press. ISBN   978-1920831349.
  7. ↑ "Appointment of new BAI board director". Boxing Australia News, 16 August 2010. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 16 February 2013.
  8. ↑ Samoa, Siva. "Rudd hel;ing to fund Pacific Island rugby". The Roar, 11 March 2010. Retrieved 16 February 2013.
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by Australian Ambassador to Peru
1981–1983		Succeeded by
G.S.F. Harding
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.