Gilbert Simpson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sir Gilbert (Gil) Simpson, KNZM, QSM, D.Sc (honoris causa) was born in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1948 and raised in the Waikato. He attended high school in Christchurch and in 1967 began his career as a computer programmer, at age 18. In 1969 he wrote the initial direct debit and direct credit applications which are in common use throughout the New Zealand banking industry today, and by age 22 he was Head of Computer Programming at the Comalco aluminium smelter in Bluff, which at that time was the largest industrial project ever undertaken in New Zealand.

He returned to Christchurch around 1972, making it his home permanently. He lived in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, working as a programmer for Caterpillar Inc. between 1976 and 1978, after which he returned to New Zealand to develop a new concept in computer programming through his creation of the fourth generation language known as LINC. LINC remains New Zealand's most successful software export to date. He has resided in Christchurch for the past 30 years, where there is now a street named after him, Sir Gil Simpson Drive [1].

Sir Gil is the founder of the Aoraki Corporation, developers of the LINC 4GL and Jade programming language, and Jade Software Corporation [2], who are also well known for their past sponsorship of Christchurch's Jade Stadium. His latest venture is Jolly Good Software Pty Ltd, which he founded in 2006 and manages from the Jolly Good gallery in Christchurch [3].

Sir Gil is recognised around the world as an advisor and speaker on Information Technology, particularly in the area of e-commerce.

With many outstanding achievements his profile in information technology has accorded him:

An honorary doctorate from the University of Canterbury, D.Sc (h.c.)
Past presidency of the Royal Society of New Zealand [4], of which he is now an honorary member
Chairman of the New Zealand government's E-Commerce Action Team [5]
Chair of the New Zealand E-Commerce Summit, 2000 [6]
Chairman of the Christchurch City Mission
Associate membership of the New Zealand Business Roundtable [7]
Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Management [8], and past membership on the NZIM advisory board
Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Directors [9]
Honorary fellow of the New Zealand Computer Society [10]
Founding patron of the Royal District Nursing Service, Australia [11]

In 2000 Sir Gil was chosen to receive the New Zealand Computer Society’s Supreme Award for the most outstanding contribution to computing in New Zealand in the 20th century. That same year he was made a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the computer industry and the broader community[12]. In 2005 he was inaugurated into the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame [13], an honour reserved for business leaders responsible for outstanding contributions to the nation. Sir Gil has also been a director on the board of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand [14], as well as that of numerous other companies, both public and private.