Third President of AIS: Ron Weber

Ron Weber was the first president of AIS Region 3 (Asia-Pacific). Since 2004 he has been dean of the Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University in Australia. Previously, he was professor of information systems in the School of Business and Research Director for the Faculty of Business, Economics and Law at The University of Queensland.

During his term as president, some major outcomes he achieved in collaboration with colleagues were:

• With Blake Ives and the ISWorld governors, worked to gain agreement for an alliance between AIS and ISWorld. Eventually, this alliance led to the establishment of AISWorld. 
• With Henry Lucas, Philip Ein-Dor, and Paul Gray, worked to establish the Journal of the Association for Information Systems and the Communications of the Association for Information Systems. 
• Worked with colleagues to establish a new business office for AIS (eventually located at Georgia State University). Also worked with the ICIS Executive (chaired by Mike Ginzberg) to have the new business office support both AIS and ICIS.

Following his presidency:

• He was co-chair of ICIS in 2000, when it was held in Brisbane, Australia 
• From 2002-2004, he was the editor-in-chief of the MIS Quarterly. He served on the editorial board of the MIS Quarterly from 1995-2000, first as an associate editor and then as a senior editor. 
• He was selected a fellow of AIS in 2000. 
• He was a member of the LEO Awards committee and Fellows selection committee.

After completing his PhD in the Management of Information Systems at the University of Minnesota, he returned to Australia as senior lecturer in the Department of Accounting and Public Finance at the Australian National University. In 1979 he took up the post of reader in commerce at The University of Queensland. In 1981 he was appointed professor of commerce, and in 1988 he was the inaugural appointment to the GWA Chair in Commerce, which he held until 1993. During periods of leave from The University of Queensland, he has been a visiting professor at the University of Minnesota, New York University, the University of British Columbia, the University of Alberta, the University of Otago, Nanyang Technological University, and City University of Hong Kong.

Ron has taught and researched in the information systems and accounting areas, and he published extensively in both Australian and international journals. He has also consulted widely on information systems matters, especially the control and audit of computer systems. Many students and practitioners use his book, Information Systems Control and Audit, internationally. Over the years, he has been a member of 10 editorial boards of journals in the information systems and accounting fields.

Ron is a fellow of the Australian Computer Society, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia, CPA Australia, the Association for Information Systems, and the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. In 2002, he was elected a life-member of the Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand (AFAANZ). He is a past president of AFAANZ. In 1994, Ron won one of four Silver Jubilee Awards given worldwide by the Information Systems Audit and Control Association for contributions to the discipline of information systems auditing. In 2000, he received the Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand’s inaugural Outstanding Educator Award and the Notable Contributions to the Accounting Literature Award. In 2000, he also won the Prime Minister's Award for University Teacher of the Year.

B.Com (Hons), 1973, Queensland; MBA, 1975 and PhD 1977, Minnesota.