 On May 30 2006, Edward Mandla was announced as the NSW State Liberal Candidate for Sydney at the 24 March 2007 Election.
His career spans more than two decades in business and over a decade making voluntary contributions to the broader community. He has held leaderships roles in Australian and multinational organisations including: the Australian Computer Society, SMARTFORCE Solutions, Computer Associates, Resumix (now Yahoo), Protech Microsystems, AST Computers (now Samsung), HiSoft and Parity Computer.
In December 2003, Edward was elected National President of the Australian Computer Society (ACS) – the peak representative body for technology professionals in Australia with 15,000 members. As at January 1, 2006 the term expired and Edward is the Immediate Past President.
As head of the ACS, Edward led the industry into a new era of policy development, government awareness and debate on its role in our country. Edward also worked hard to increase the community’s awareness of the technology industry by promoting the industry’s presence in radio and television. As a result he drove the ACS to hold the highest public profile amongst all technology industry associations with 75%+ share of media voice.
Key initiatives included lobbying hard to ensure all school children are computer literate and for all homes to have broadband Internet access. He demonstrated forward thinking with his release of Work Life balance policy urging a change in employment attitudes. The policy, which had prominent national coverage, argued employees needed more flexible work hours, options for fully paid parental leave and child care reforms.
Up to point of his preselection, Edward authored regular columns for the Sydney Morning Herald, Age and MIS Magazine. While ACS President he was a regular columnist for The Australian, PC Authority and Technology and Business.
He is also a Director of management consultancy SMARTFORCE Solutions. Edward sits on a number of commercial and government advisory groups including the ICT Skills Foresighting Working Group, CoMICTA (Committee for Marketing ICT of Australia), Austrade ICT Export Advisory Panel and Workforce Aging in the New Economy Committee. He is the chief facilitator of TIPI (Technologists in the Public Interest) leading up to the National Skills Summit in June 2006.
In June 2006 Edward was appointed as Regional Director CompTIA ITPro which is an industry initiative between CompTIA, Microsoft, Hewlett- Packard, Cisco Systems, Apple, AGIMO (Australian Government Information Management Office) to address skills development in Australia.
Edward has a distinguished academic record. He received 1st Class Honours in Commerce from the University of New South Wales majoring in Information Systems. Edward won the “Datec Prize” for Best Honours Thesis relating to Information Systems techniques used for commercial applications. He was also awarded the 1st University Medal for outstanding academic achievement in Information Systems.
Edward is a long term CBD resident symbolising the changing nature of Sydney. With three children coming and going, working and living in the city, two dogs that come to work each day, Edward has a unique understanding of the environment and challenges in the electorate.
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About Mandla
