16 June 2005

Order of Australia Honour for AIM CEO

AIM Chief Executive Carolyn Barker FAIM has been recognised in this year's Queen's Birthday honours list.

Ms Barker has been awarded a Member in the Order of Australia for her service to business through management and educational organisations, and to the arts through The Queensland Orchestra.

A former journalist and television newsreader, Ms Barker has built a successful business career including owning and operating two businesses in the services industry and working in executive management roles for both the private and public sector.

As well as being CEO of AIM Qld & NT and director of its e-learning company, TheCyberInstitute, she is a Director of the AIM National. She also sits on the Brisbane City Council City Business board.

In addition, Ms Barker edits AIM's internationally best selling Management Today book series, in collaboration with publishers, McGraw-Hill.

She described her Queen's Birthday award as a great honour.

“This is not just recognition for me, it is a testament to the innovative work of the Australian Institute of Management in supporting leaders and managers around the country with contemporary business solutions,” Ms Barker said.

“It is so encouraging to see that management as a profession is recognised through this awards process,” she said.

“There are tens of thousands of managers in Australia who practise their craft day in and day out who are very rarely recognised for the work that they do.”

Ms Barker's love of the arts is well known, having held board positions in this sector in South Australia and now in Queensland as Chair of The Queensland Orchestra and a board member of the Powerhouse Centre for Live Arts.

“I have always believed arts and business can complement each other in the most imaginative ways,” Ms Barker said.

“My chairmanship of The Queensland Orchestra has been more productive because of the first rate Board that the Federal and State Governments nominated when the new orchestra was formed in 2001.”

“It has been a long and rewarding journey but the Orchestra is now showing a surplus. All this has been as a result of a commitment to responsible governance and sticking to our guns,” she said.