Beth Heyde, interviewed by Tom Spurling and Terry Healy, 21 November 2017

By Helen WolffSeptember 12th, 2018

Beth joined CSIRO as Principal Secretary. In that and subsequent roles she served six Chief Executives of CSIRO and provided policy advice and administrative support, focusing primarily on CSIRO’s relationships with governments, including Ministers and Departments

Edited transcript  (PDF – 979 KB)

Interview summary

Dr Beth Heyde first talks about her early life in Queensland as the daughter of school teachers, her education in Innisfail and other parts of rural Queensland, her interest in biotechnology at the University of Queensland and then at the Australian National University in Canberra, and her later marriage and career.

Beth then talks about her time in England in Sheffield and Manchester, followed by her return to the ANU for an extended period – 1968 to 1980. After a short time in the Department of Health, Beth joined ASTEC – from 1981 to 1987.

In January 1988, Beth joined CSIRO as Principal Secretary. In that and subsequent roles she served six Chief Executives of CSIRO – Keith Boardman, John Stocker, Roy Green, Malcolm McIntosh, Colin Adam and Geoff Garrett. She provided policy advice and administrative support, focusing primarily on CSIRO’s relationships with governments, including Ministers and Departments.

Notes

Interview recorded in Black Mountain (Canberra) on 21 November 2017 as part of the CSIRO History Project.

Copyright

Copyright owned by Swinburne University of Technology and CSIRO. Some re-use permitted (Creative Commons BY-NC-ND)