Professional


Dr Andre Oboler provides professional advice, leadership and support to governments, companies and the not for profit sector. He has a rare combination of expertise in technology, law and their impact on society. He’s served as a CEO, company director, government appointed expert, academic, consultant and in local, national and international leadership roles for community organisations and professional associations.

His formal qualifications include a PhD in Computer Science from Lancaster University and a Juris Doctor and first class Honours in Computer Science from Monash University. He  completed a Post Doctoral Fellowship in Political Science at Bar-Ilan University in Israel and the Company Directors Course from the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Management, Governance and Leadership

  • Founder, Managing Director and CEO, Online Hate Prevention Institute, 2012-current
  • Co-Chair, IEEE Computer Society Tech Forum on Digital Platforms and Societal Harms (2021-2022)
  • Member, IEEE TAB Committee on Technical Community Outreach, Engagement and Society Membership (2022-2023)
  • IEEE Tech Ethics Ambassador (2022-2023)
  • Member, IEEE Global Public Policy Committee (2018-2019, 2020-2021, 2022-2023)
  • Vice-Chair, Membership and Geographic Activities Board, IEEE Computer Society (2015-2016; 2018-2020)
  • Chair, Geographic Activities Committee, IEEE Computer Society (2018-2020)
  • Vice Chair, IEEE Australia Council (2017-2018)
  • Chair, Distinguished Visitors Program, IEEE Computer Society (2017)
  • Distinguished Visitor, IEEE Computer Society (2015-2017)
  • Chair, Award and Recognition Committee, IEEE Computer Society (2015-2016)
  • Councillor, Executive Council of Australian Jewry, 2015-2020
  • Executive Member, Jewish Community Council of Victoria, 2015-2020
  • R10 Coordinator, IEEE Computer Society, 2014-2015
  • Chair of the Student Awards Committee, IEEE Computer Society, 2014
  • Membership Development Officer, IEEE Victorian section, 2014-2017
  • Committee Member, IEEE Computer Society Chapter of the IEEE Victorian section, 2012-2018
  • Member of the ROI Community of global Jewish leaders, 2008-current
  • Vice-Chair of the Student Awards Committee, IEEE Computer Society, 2013
  • Completed Monash University’s prestigious John Bertrand Leadership program, 2013
  • Member of the Student Awards Committee, IEEE Computer Society, 2012
  • Australian and New Zealand Country Coordinator, IEEE Computer Society, 2012-2013
  • Nominations Committee (& Elections Committee), IEEE Victorian section, 2011
  • Chair, IEEE Computer Society Chapter of the IEEE Victorian section, 2010-2011
  • Director, Community Internet Engagement Project, Zionist Federation of Australia, 2010-2011
  • Vice Chair, IEEE Computer Society Chapter of the IEEE Victorian section, 2009
  • Completed a one year Legacy Heritage Fellowship for Jewish Leaders, 2007-2008
  • Board of Directors, Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (Registered charity 1062746 and SC037786), 2004-2006
  • Management subcommittee and charity trustee, National Postgraduate Committee (Registered charity SC033368), 2004-6, 2007-2008
  • Management Committee and charity trustee, Lancaster University Chaplaincy Centre (Registered charity 500891)
  • Workshop Chair The First International Workshop on Improving Research Productivity in Computing, 2007
  • Member of the Court, University of Lancaster, 2004, 2005
  • Member of the Senate, University of Lancaster, 2003-2004
  • Chair of the Steering Group, Lancaster District Diversity Festival, 2004
  • Lancaster University Students’ Union Council, 2003-2005
  • Member of the Faculty Board, Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University, 2002
  • Director of SARWare – (an IT start-up), 2002-2003

More on the community involvement page

Major projects include CaMML, SARBayes, USECSR, SERE, Zionism On The Web, and a year working in both empirical research and web technology for NGO Monitor in Jerusalem. Descriptions of these and other projects follow.

Work History (non-academic)

Company: Online Hate Prevention Institute

Reporting to: The Board of Directors

Role: CEO & Managing Director. Delivering OHPI’s strategic and business plans. Supporting the operations and administration of Board. Overseeing the design, marketing, promotion, delivery and quality of programs and services. Creation of annual budget and management of OHPI’s resources. Management of staff and volunteers. Management of community and public relations. Overseeing fundraising planning and implementation.

Company: Zionist Federation of Australia

Reporting to: The Executive Director

Role: Director of the Community Internet Engagement Project. Secured funding, created and ran the CIE project which became a global leader in the fight against Internet based antisemitism and anti-Israel propaganda that seeks to delegitimize the Jewish state. I managed a team of researchers, software developers and support staff. The project ran online campaigns, assisted community groups, provided workshops and produced significant research and media output.

Company: NGO Monitor

Reporting to: The Executive Director and the CEO

Role: One year fellowship which included research, development and system administration.This position at a Jerusalem based NGO combined an empirical research role (examining third sector accuracy and accountability) with system administration, software development, and the involvement in the hiring, training and supervision of a new webmaster. The role included planning the IT infrastructure needed for a movement to a new premises, administration of the organisation’s web server and various online resources, and the development of a sophisticated relevance system connected to the existing custom build PHP content management system. Th relevance system was optimized to improve SEO in addition to aiding users find useful information. Various improvements to the website were also developed including a custom built RSS feeds, search facilities, and management reporting facilities.

Company: Lancaster University (Graduate College)

Reporting to: Contract job, signed off by the Graduate College Principle

Role: Database Design, Interface design, Construction, Support

Originally constructed in 2003 to automate a manual system of building management, this tool dramatically improved efficiency and allowed the same number of staff to cope with 250% growth in the number of rooms and students they had to manage. The system was designed to specifications gathered from the users (college porters) followed by an extensive interface redesign over a number of months to improve user efficiency and reduce the learning curve for users with little or no IT skills. The system is still in use and been continually running for 3.5 years with only minimal changes (resulting from a changing environment). The system manages a central mail collection point (including creating and clearing lists for registered post and packages) along with the standard items such as rooms key management, forwarding addresses and movement of residents between rooms.

Company: Cummins Engine Company

Reporting to: The Quality Assurance Manager

Role: Analysis, Design and Construction

A database system in VB for monitoring and assisting with the calibration of machinery. The system was completed under a very tight schedule and released on time to over 60 workshops around Australia.

Company: Monash Unicom

Reporting to: Head Librarian, John Medley Library

Role: Analysis, Design, Construction, Maintenance.

A Microsoft Access database for the collection of statistics relating to CDs, LPs and other media requested in the library. This system went through about 4 annual revisions as requirements and facilities changed.

Company: Oblo Jewellery P/L

Reporting to: Managing Director

Role: Analysis, Design, Conversion, Construction, Maintenance, IT Provisioning, Documentation and Training

This involved the upgrading of a system from mostly manual with a single IBM 286 machine running Lotus and DB2 programs to an integrated end to end business solution including conversion to access of the old system’s components, automation of many manual tasks, creation of a network to run the system on and continual review and updating of the system. The final system will handle import / export documentation, stock control, costing, label generation, production automation, customer relations management, promotional advertising generation and other functions. The system has been under development since 1996 and is still expanding to meet the business needs.

Company: First Cash P/L

Reporting to: Director

Role: Analysis, Design, Construction, Version Conversion

This involved the creation of a system for managing the core business of a new company set up to administer personal loans. The system has to be designed to meet both business needs and legal requirements. The system handled all paper work relating to the loans including the creation of loans, generation of statements, repayment processing, and repayment schedules. Part way through development the system was converted from Access 97 to Access 2000.

Company: M Oboler & Son (South Africa)

Reporting to: IT Manager

Role: Design, Construction, Documentation

This work involved the creation of a new customs documentation program to replace a Cobol system prior to Y2K. The system integrated with the old Cobol pricing system (with the use of data conversion software created in C) and then used an Access front end with more C code as a backend for the generation of both lists and composite photos of items. The old system (brought in decades before) set the standard that the customs office then required by law. The new system has proved as popular with both company staff (due to a reduction in effort and the removal of a photographic phase that used to take days) and with customs staff (who now have one document rather then cross linking documents and photographs).

Company: CSSE, Monash University

Reporting to: Project Manager, CaMML Project

Role: Analysis, Design

This was a summervac position that involved the design in OO terms of an existing peice of software in the field of AI. The Analysis was conducted by reviewing Journal articles on the existing system and consulting with the Project Manager and users of the system.

Company: CSSE, Monash University

Reporting to: Project Manager, SARBayes

Role: Design, restructuring and documentation of SORAL

This was a summervac position that involved reworking previous code to improve maintainability and adaptability for the future. The resulting design was highly successful and the code underwent FTR become being documented and released. SORAL is a library for optimal allocation of resources for missing person search and rescue. It grew out of the AGM project mentioned above.

University Projects of Note

SAR AGM

This project was a resource allocation program for land based search and rescue. The project was completed by a team of three, I was the Quality Control manager. The software was demonstrated to Victoria Police’s search and rescue unit. The an open source license to the software was later purchased by a US company.

MI5-E

This was an analysis and design project. I was the project manager for a team of 4. The team included a diversity of people and involved significant management and issues. The project was completed to the satisfaction of all team members.

SCAMM Technologies

This project was a design and implementation project. The team consisted of 5 people, I was the project manager. The project involved the design and coding of a flight booking system in Java. The project involved approx 192 man hours a week for three months.

Security

This project was a complete security review of a large organisations IT division. The confidential review covered everything from physical security and procedures through to system configuration. The recommendations of the report were adopted by management.