David John Travers is a businessman from

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, Australia.

Education

Travers attended Cleve Area School and then

Flinders University Flinders University, established as The Flinders University of South Australia is a public university, public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia, with a footprint extending across a number of locations in South Australia and ...

and

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. His family arrived in Australia from

Kilkenny Kilkenny ( , meaning 'church of Cainnech of Aghaboe, Cainnech'). is a city in County Kilkenny, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is located in the South-East Region, Ireland, South-East Region and in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinst ...

, Ireland and Normandy, France in 1848. After five generations of farming, Travers' father encouraged him to leave the farm and obtain a

tertiary education Tertiary education (higher education, or post-secondary education) is the educational level following the completion of secondary education. The World Bank defines tertiary education as including universities, colleges, and vocational schools ...

Career

Travers began his career as a cadet journalist at

Fairfax Media Fairfax Media was a media (communication), media company in Australia and New Zealand, with investments in newspaper, magazines, radio and digital properties. The company was founded by John Fairfax as John Fairfax and Sons, who purchased ''The ...

in 1988. He left in 1998, to become Chief of Staff to the South Australian Liberal Deputy Premier Hon

Graham Ingerson Graham Alexander Ingerson (born 27 August 1941) is a former Australian politician and 8th Deputy Premier of South Australia from 1996 to 1998. Ingerson was a Liberal Party member of the House of Assembly seat of Bragg between 1983 and 2002. C ...

. After Ingerson resigned for misleading Parliament, Travers won a job in the State's public service. When Labor Party leader

Mike Rann Michael David Rann (born 5 January 1953) is an Australian former politician who was the 44th premier of South Australia from 2002 to 2011. He was later Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 2013 to 2014, and List of Australi ...

became Premier, following the 2002 State Election, he tasked Travers with establishing

Carnegie Mellon University, Australia Carnegie Mellon University Australia was the Australian campus of Carnegie Mellon University's H. John Heinz III College from 2006 to 2022 in the city centre of Adelaide, South Australia. In June 2022 the operation announced it would close down ...

. Travers moved to London in 2006 as Deputy

Agent-General An Agent-General ( or , masculine and feminine respectively) is the representative in cities abroad of the government of a Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province or an States and territories of Australia, Australian state and, h ...

for

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

working under Agents General

Maurice de Rohan Maurice John de Rohan AO OBE (13 May 1936 – 5 October 2006) was an Australian engineer, former Agent General for South Australia, and nominee for Governor of South Australia. Career Born in Adelaide, Australia, de Rohan graduated from the U ...

OBE and then

Bill Muirhead William Mortimer Muirhead (born 1946) is an Adelaide-born senior advertising executive and was the Agent General for South Australia in London. He took the position of Agent General 2007 at the request of Premier Mike Rann. Early life and edu ...

. After meeting

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

Provost

Malcolm Grant Sir Malcolm John Grant, , (born 29 November 1947) is a barrister, academic lawyer, and former law professor. Born and educated in New Zealand, he was the ninth President and Provost of University College London – the head as well as principa ...

in early 2007, he convinced UCL to join CMU in establishing an overseas campus in Adelaide. In 2010, Sir Malcolm appointed Travers as both CEO of its new

UCL Australia UCL Australia was an international campus of the University College London, located on Victoria Square, Adelaide, Victoria Square in Adelaide, South Australia. It had three parts: the School of Energy and Resources (SERAus), the International En ...

and a governor of its UCL's Qatar board in

Doha Doha ( ) is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor (city), Al Khor and Lusail, it is home to most of the country's population. It ...

. He quit UCL in early 2015 after the new Provost

Michael Arthur (physician) Sir Michael James Paul Arthur FMedSci (born 3 August 1954) is a British academic who was the tenth provost and president of University College London between 2013 and January 2021. Arthur had previously been chairman of the Russell Group of UK u ...

unexpectedly announced plans to close the international campus program. He is currently the chairman of Scope Global. He was the founding chairman of

Sundrop Farms Sundrop Farms is a developer, owner and operator of high tech greenhouse facilities which grow crops using methods which reduce reliance on finite natural resources when compared to conventional greenhouse production. Sundrop Farms opened its fir ...

, which brought private equity firm

KKR KKR may refer to: * KKR & Co., a global investment firm *Kolkata Knight Riders, an Indian Premier League franchise * Rheinsberg Nuclear Power Plant (), first nuclear power plant in the former East Germany * Kalkara, Malta, postal code KKR *Kir-Bala ...

into Australian horticulture in 2014. Travers is a pioneer in the sector of

agricultural technology Agricultural technology or agrotechnology (abbreviated agtech, agritech, AgriTech, or agrotech) is the use of technology in agriculture, horticulture, and aquaculture with the aim of improving yield, efficiency, and profitability. Agricultural tec ...

, combining technology and skills from the defence sector, fourth-generation

distributed ledger A distributed ledger (also called a shared ledger or distributed ledger technology or DLT) is a system whereby replicated, shared, and synchronized digital data is geographically spread (distributed) across many sites, countries, or institutions. I ...

technology, and IoT to provide a system of geolocated, time-stamped and immutable records that allows manufacturers and consumers to verify the authenticity of

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...

before making a purchase.

Political views

Travers supports the deregulation of Australia's tertiary education sector and has encouraged debate on the future possibility of

nuclear power in Australia Nuclear power in Australia has been a topic of practical debate since the mid-20th century. Australia has never had a nuclear power plant, and has only one nuclear reactor (OPAL), the third in a series at Lucas Heights, New South Wales, which ...

. Travers has said that "nuclear energy must form part of the future nergysolution, but gas and renewables must play a part in this transition, so politicians need to get serious, show some courage and take responsibility for leading this debate, not shutting it down." Under Travers' leadership, UCL Australia's researchers investigated nuclear fuel leasing potential and the possibility of

nuclear submarines A nuclear submarine is a submarine powered by a nuclear reactor, but not necessarily nuclear weapons, nuclear-armed. Nuclear submarines have considerable performance advantages over "conventional" (typically Marine diesel engine, diesel-elect ...

for Australia. He believes that Australia should do more with its "natural advantages" including increasing "support for plant functional genome,

GMO A genetically modified organism (GMO) is any organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. The exact definition of a genetically modified organism and what constitutes genetic engineering varies, with ...

, nano manipulation of seeds,

nano-technology Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter with at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometers (nm). At this scale, commonly known as the nanoscale, surface area and quantum mechanical effects become important in describing propertie ...

for interactive

agricultural chemicals An agrochemical or agrichemical, a contraction of ''agricultural chemical'', is a chemical product used in industrial agriculture. Agrichemical typically refers to biocides (pesticides including insecticides, herbicides, fungicides and nematicid ...

, or chemical release packaging.". He spent an unknown amount of time with the Silicon Quantum Computing company at UNSW.

Honours

Travers is a former Young South Australian of the Year and Young Australian of the Year finalist. News Limited listed him as one of Australia's top 40 future leaders.

References

External links

VUCAScope GlobalBourke & Travers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Travers, David Date of birth missing (living people) Living people Australian business executives Businesspeople from Sydney Flinders University alumni Harvard University alumni Year of birth missing (living people)