Allied contributes $3 million to fund Medical School Professorial Chair

Mar 09, 2006

An Illawarra-based business has provided $3 million to fund a Professorial Chair at the University of Wollongong’s new Graduate School of Medicine.

Marsden (Mick) Williams, founder of the Allied Group of Companies, made the $3 million contribution towards the Medical School to honour his late wife Roberta.

It is the largest private contribution in the University’s history.

The money will be used to establish the Roberta Williams Chair of Medicine (General Practice) at the Medical School, which is on track to accept its first students next year.

UOW Vice-Chancellor Professor Gerard Sutton described the contribution as “incredibly generous”.

“This is the single largest contribution the University has received, and it reflects the very giving nature of Mick Williams,” Professor Sutton said.

“Through this contribution, Mr Williams is providing a very significant legacy to the community in which he lives, and where his business was founded.”

Mr Williams, who turns 90 this month, established his steel fabricating company in Wollongong in 1948. Allied has grown into a highly successful diversified group providing industrial services and equipment to Australia’s mining, manufacturing and shipping sectors, with close to 450 employees.

“The Roberta Williams Chair of Medicine (General Practice) will epitomise our Medical School’s strong commitment to training doctors to work in regional areas, and the value we place on the role of General Practitioners in the overall delivery of health services,” Professor Sutton said.

The Medical School’s Foundation Dean Professor John Hogg described the contribution as a “dramatic and wonderful example of community support” for the School.

He said the University would soon be advertising the position of Professor of Medicine (General Practice) as part of a wider recruiting program to prepare for the arrival of the first students in January 2007.

Professor Sutton said he hoped Allied’s contribution would inspire other individuals and corporations to consider supporting the University.

“I hope this will encourage other people to show the same degree of confidence in the University that Mr Williams has shown,” Professor Sutton said.

“We are a relatively young University, and we don’t have the reserves of Australia’s older institutions, yet we will have to rely more on public support and less on government funding in the future,” Professor Sutton said.

Professor Sutton said donations, no matter how small, from Alumni and the wider community would be crucial for the University’s future development.

For more information contact Nick Hartgerink at the UOW Media Unit on 0418 424085.

For more information, contact:

media@uow.edu.au
University of Wollongong
Ph: (02) 4221 5942; fax (02) 4221 3128