Di
Fleming

Speaker Profile

As the principal of Kilvington Girls Grammar, Di Fleming was the Winner of the 1998 - 1999 Telstra Victorian Businesswoman of the Year Award along with the National Telstra/AusIndustry Award (Private Sector employing fewer than 100 employees). In December 2000, Di was part of the successful consortia (as the CEO of Digital Harbour Pty Ltd), in winning the bid to develop the Comtechport at the Melbourne Docklands. Di is also a Director of AKT (Accelerated Knowledge Technologies) a group that focuses on strategic planning and creative thinking.

Di has been acknowledged for her strategic approach to education and her creation of innovative industry partnerships. A number of innovations have been incubated through unique relationships with companies including Microsoft, Toshiba, SMC, Telstra, Festo Didactic, Intellecta, the National Australia Bank and the Australian Institute of Engineers.

Di has been the Director of the Strategic Issues Forum on education for the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) and a Consultant for Hewlett Packard in a vocational education project. Di is an invitational lecturer at Melbourne, Monash and Deakin universities. Di has represented Australia for five years at the International Centre for Leadership (New York) Model Schools Conference.

In April 2000 Di was a key presenter at the International Conference for the Australian Institute for Engineers in Canberra and in January 2001 was a featured speaker at the Ninth International Conference on Thinking in New Zealand. Di was part of the Human Dimension of Innovation stream chaired by Gerry Moriaty at the Prime Ministers Summit on Innovation in Melbourne, and currently chairs the Innovation and Creativity Sub-committee of the Premier’s ICT Task Force. Di is also a senior fellow of the Global Business Network (GBN) Australia.

Di’s special area of expertise is education and enterprise, innovation and futures planning, with a particular passion for computing technology as a learning tool. Di believes that, “Information, communication and computing technology, along with the development of strategic alliances are the most powerful catalysts of educational change. These influences will free children from the traditional classroom and enable them to become the authors of their future.”

Di has completed a number of lecture tours abroad including MICROSOFT AAL USA and the United Kingdom where she presented the opening address for the Anywhere Anytime Learning Summit. The emphasis of her work with Microsoft is on the implementation of Laptop computing technology across the curriculum. Bill Gates has praised Di’s work.

Under Di’s leadership, Kilvington has earned a world-wide reputation for its implementation of Laptop computing, the use of the Internet together with the implementation of industry standard robotics as part of the curriculum from Junior to Senior School.

Di began her career as an educator and a director of Fleming Flight Services, a most successful small business, enhanced by the “government of the day’s” 40% Investment Allowance which she and her late husband were recipients of as young entrepreneurs. This start-up funding changed the course of their lives at the age of 25 years. Di’s earliest contact with computer technology occurred in this environment.

Di believes that mentoring is part of professional responsibility – to prepare young people and pass the baton on. Di was chosen as one of the Olympic torchbearers for the Sydney Olympics 2000. Di has jointly published a number of books including a multimedia based (1979) ‘History of Australian Women 1788 - 1860’. She is currently completing a book entitled ‘From Sandcastles to Cyberspace - Learning for the 21st Century’. This latest contribution is the story of the shift from the Industrial Age model of schooling to the Knowledge Age model of schooling.

Di is committed to partnerships in lifelong learning. She appreciates the skill shortages in ICT world-wide and is committed to arrest the trend by taking a stand and creating training and start-up opportunities where young people can innovate, create, communicate and succeed for personal and national success.