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History

The Industry Leaders Fund (ILF) stems from the Engineering Employers Association South Australia (EEASA) Group Training Scheme – which commenced with apprentice training in 1981, leading to many state and national reform initiatives.

This tradition has continued, transforming its role from an apprentice training organisation to a leadership development organisation, renamed the Industry Leaders Fund in 2009.

The Fund made its initial call for grant applications in July 2010 and awards worth $43,000 were made to two successful recipients.

In each year after that inaugural round of grants, the trend has been for the number of awards to grow as the profile of the Fund increases in line with an expanding number of applicants and improved quality of those applicants. Today the Fund offers grants to future leaders of wealth-creating industries.

Over 14 years, grants have been awarded to 274 talented individuals who have satisfied the same leadership potential criteria used to assess Rhodes Scholarship applicants.

ILF Highlights

2010
First ever grants awarded
First ever grants awarded to Anthony Kittel, Managing Director of REDARC, and Christine Stock

who had demonstrated outstanding leadership qualities as an apprentice in the EEASA GTS days

2013
ILF Scholars Network founded
ILF Scholars Network founded

with Anthony Kittel as founding chair of the organising committee.

2014
A new record for ILF
A record number of applicants!

to that point was received and a record number of value of awards was made to celebrate the fifth round of awards.

2014
REDARC is Awarded
Telstra Australian Business of the Year
Redarc Telstra Business of the Year

REDARC, the business of founding Scholar, Anthony Kittel, was awarded Telstra Australian Business of the Year.

2015
New chair elected
Eddie Lane elected as Chair
Eddie Lane

of the ILF Scholars Network committee.
2016
Col Peters stepped down
Col Peters succeeded by David McNeil
David McNeil

Col Peters, stepped down as inaugural President, to be succeeded by inaugural Treasurer, David McNeil.

2017
New chair elected
Congratulations Kris
Kris Lloyd

Kris Lloyd elected Chair of the ILF Scholars Network committee.

2018
New president
Congratulations Paul Haysman
Paul Haysman

Paul Haysman elected President.

2019
New Chair elected
Darren Turner elected Chair
Darren Turner

of the ILF Scholars Network committee.

2019
10th Anniversary
Tenth anniversary awards ceremony

Tenth anniversary awards ceremony held at Convention Centre with a record 36 awards presented. SA food, mostly from scholar’s businesses and scholar-produced wine were featured.

2020
Covid impacted ILF
COVID-19 impacted the number of applications

COVID-19 impacted the number applications and COVID restrictions required awards ceremony attendees to be seated. Showbags were provided to all attendees for the first time. These contained sanitiser and face masks provided by scholar businesses, Brayfield Park Lavender and Detmold, respectively.

2020
First Colin J Peters AM Memorial Award presented to Anthony Kittel
2020
Membership opened up
Membership of the ILF opened up to Office Bearers

Membership of the ILF opened up to Office Bearers of the ILF Scholars Committee.

2020
Richard Colebatch elected President
Richard Colebatch

ILF Highlights continued

2021
New chair elected
David Hart elected Chair
David Hart

of the ILF Scholars Network Committee.

2021
Six current and previous ILFSN Committee Office Bearers accepted the opportunity to join as members of the ILF
2021
A new record!
87 applications received

Record number of 87 applications received.

2021
First donation to Industry Leaders Chairman's Foundation
2021
Record 39 awards presented, worth a record $514,000
2021
First David B McNeil Transformative Leadership Program Award presented to Ben Klason
2022
Mark Canny elected President
Mark Canny
2022
First Seeley International Imagineering Award presented to Michael Clayton
2022
First Lumination State Innovator Award presented to Dr Brenton Cooper
2022
First Scholars Showcase held at Mitsubishi Motors Australia
2023
Geoff Vogt's retirement
2023
New Chief Executive appointed - Richard Barrett
2023
New chair elected
Shaun Westcott elected chair

of the ILF Scholars Network Committee.

2023
ILF Grant Information Evening held at Lumination