Professional ICT association, The Australian Computer Society (ACS), has elected a lawyer as its new national president, as well as two new vice presidents after a closed meeting of the ACS Council, the society's inner circle.

Sydney ICT lawyer, Philip Argy, considered by many observers as the heir apparent waiting in the wings for the past two years, has been awarded the post for the next two years. Dr Catherine Jaktman and Kumar Parakala were elected as vice-presidents for two years and one year respectively.

Mr Argy replaces outgoing president, executive search consultant Edward Mandla, whose two-year rein at the helm of the ACS was often accompanied by controversy. An ill-advised TV advertising campaign comparing the ACS to the Society of CPAs caused the ACS considerable embarrassment as the accounting body forced the campaign to be aborted. There was also controversy over reports commissioned by the ACS into IT skills shortages and immigration in which the findings were suppressed, much to the chagrin of the author Bob Kinnaird. Membership numbers of the ACS have also plummeted dramatically in the past two years from 16,000 to 14,000 as the organisation struggles to stay relevant.

According to Mr Argy, he plans to focus on promoting professional standards as the most effective risk management strategy in the IT industry and bolster the public perception of the technology industry.
 
"Professionalism is an important risk mitigation strategy and is critical to ensuring that Australias ICT sector is held in the highest regard by business, government and industry,Ҕ Mr Argy said. I am committed to raising professional standards as I believe this is an essential step both for the future of the ICT sector and for the wider community.Ԕ
 
Mr Argy is a senior partner and has been with Mallesons Stephen Jaques for over 20 years. Although Mr Argy is a lawyer, he also promotes himself as an experienced programmer who specialises in intellectual property, science and technology law, with an interest in technology for over 35 years.  His main areas of practice include patent litigation, commercial negotiations and dispute resolution strategies as well as outsourcing, electronic commerce and digital signatures. He holds Bachelor of Commerce in Information Systems and Bachelor of Laws degrees.
 
Among previous positions held at the ACS, Mr Argy has served as New South Wales branch chair, and has served multiple terms as a vice-president. He has also appeared as an expert witness before Senate Committee hearings into On-line Content Regulation, Cybercrime and Spam. In 1996, Information Age nominated him as one of Australias 50 most influential people in Information Technology (IT), and he was awarded a ComputerWorld Fellow in 1997 for services to the IT industry. In addition, Euromoney magazineҒs "Best of the Best" special report has listed Mr Argy as one of the twenty best information technology lawyers in the world.

Mr Argy is also the current national chairman of the eCommerce Committee of the Law Council of Australia, a past president and founding member of the New South Wales Society for Computers and the Law, and past chairman of the Information Technology Committee of the Law Council. He is also a member of the NSW Law Society's Legal Technology Committee and he chairs the Webcast Committee of the Computer Law Association.
 
Mr Argy formally takes over as ACS National President on 1 January 2006, when Mr Mandla steps down.

Mr Argy said he would devote significant energy and resources to ensuring that the ICT industry is seen as a legitimate career aspiration for young people. I will also work to ensure that AustraliaӒs ICT teaching skills are improved right across the education system so that technology is provided as a life skill to young people entering our workforce. This is critical to maintaining Australias position in the global economy.Ҕ

Unlike Mr Argy and Mr Mandla before him, the newly elected vice presidents of the ACS come from more conventional hands on IT backgrounds.

Canberra-based Dr Catherine Jaktman, currently is chair of the Canberra branch of the ACS. She has worked in the ICT industry for 15 years and is a principal of Nordic Technology, where she works as a project manager and senior technical consultant/architect and researcher, covering application development, IT strategy, architecture modeling, and training. Her research expertise is in empirical software measurement. She holds a B.A in Mathematics, an M.S in Computer Science and a PhD in Computer Science Engineering.

The other newly-elected vice-president, Kumar Parakala, is the ACS NSW branch chair, and global chief operating officer of the Information Risk Management (IRM) Practice at KPMG. Mr Parakala has held senior IT positions with the Queensland Government and in the private sector. Prior to his position at KPMG, Parakala was a senior ICT executive at the University of Sydney, His areas of expertise include program and project management, business IT strategy, business improvement and alignment, IT governance and change management.