Vicki Thomson’s career has traversed journalism, politics and universities. But she never forgets where she came from.
My lunch with Vicki Thomson, chief executive of the Group of Eight , starts 50 minutes before our official kick-off time of 1pm when I meet her at her hotel in the Melbourne CBD. I’m grabbing a ride in her big black Mercedes limo driven by chauffer Rocco.
Thomson, 58, has been CEO of the Go8 for eight years and has worked in the university sector in various capacities for more than 20. Her job makes her a player on national and international stages, and she is widely considered the most effective advocate for the university sector. She is adored by many, feared by some and envied by those who don’t quite grasp how this upstart from a housing commission house in Western Australia got to be quite so good at what she does.
“Either you do less research and fund it better, which should be on the table with a full economic costing. And that means that all universities have to really think about the research they do. A family friend took her under his wing. His name was Hadrian and he was an intellectual and a writer.In addition to teaching her how to swim , Hadrian bought her a diary and encouraged her to journal, which she does to this day. He also suggested she might consider journalism as a career.
Her first job at Channel Nine in Perth was an interview with a man who sculpted vegetables. She then moved to regional papers, working her way around the state at Esperance, Carnavon, Merredin, Northam and Kalgoorlie, where she met the love of her life, Andrew Thomson, and switched to the ABC. “It’s intense. But in that five-year period I met the Queen, was blessed by the Pope and flew on the Concorde. And sometimes I think how did the girl from Hilton Park come to be doing this stuff?”“I never forget where I came from, and I never not appreciate a situation or take it for granted,” she says.
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