Greg was born in Sydney in 1952. He attended Sydney Tech High at Hurstville Sydney and studied Electrical Engineering at the University of NSW. At the end of his 1st year he won a cadetship with the Department of Aviation (after being rejected by Qantas!) which allowed him to complete his studies full time whilst working for the Department during holidays. He graduated with Honours in early 1974 and worked in NSW Airways engineering on the analogue Air Traffic Control system at Kyeemagh with a fantastic mentor engineer Bob
Peake.

A sign that Greg was very interested in this work is that he visited one of the Departments remote radars near Armidale during his honeymoon in 1975. He also remembers the day when he and another engineer briefed the Regional Chief Engineer about the importance of the arrival of microprocessors – and being told to go away – “they would be of no consequence”!

Greg was posted to the UK for 4 months in 1976 to train and acceptance test the first Australian computer based ATC training simulator (DTL circuits, 64K ferrite memory and paper tape!). Subsequently he moved to central office in Melbourne for 5 years where he took a significant role in the ATCARDS (ATC automated radar display system) ATC system software development involving postings to Paris and eventual commissioning in Adelaide & Melbourne. These systems were amongst the first fully digital radar ATC systems in the world and included multiradar tracking. There were numerous challenges including adapting
old technologies to new as well as staffing, training, industrial relations and so on. Lots of lessons were learnt.

Greg then led the technical aspects of deploying a complete replacement of all Australia’s civilian radars with monopulse SSR in a project called RASPP (Radar Sensor procurement project). This became possible because the organisation was no longer constrained by the Government annual budget cycle and could purchase 19 radars in one contract. After the first 3 radars were commissioned, Greg was seconded to the TAAATS (The Australian Advanced Air Traffic System) project (a major project run by a small team of about
12 incredibly capable & dedicated people). His role was to lead the ATC Automation segment in partnership with an Air Traffic Controller. TAAATS replaced somewhat independent state based systems with two major centres (Brisbane & Melbourne) and a number of small terminal control units – one technology was used for
enroute/terminal/oceanic and tower operations – with Controller-Pilot datalink and ADS-C. It removed all paper strips from TCUs and centres, reduced the number of flight data staff, and adopted the ICAO flight plan replacing the domestic flight plan completely. It was a massive and successful project. That system was commissioned in 1997 and remains operational in 2025. The team was the winner of the National Engineering Excellence Awards by the Institution of Engineers in 1999.

The success of TAAATS resulted in team members including Greg providing support and consultancies to other countries including China, Sweden, Fiji and even supporting a bid for the FAA’s Oceanic system. Greg moved to technical lead of the tactical flow management system for Sydney. The TAAATS supplier integrated the capability into TAAATS for the Sydney Olympics and beyond.

Greg then led Airservices work in ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast) technology, from the proposal for a trial at Bundaberg, through to countrywide deployment including technical analysis, building Industry support and the safety cases. Within Australia there were numerous points of view about ADS-B ranging from strong support to vehement opposition. Hundreds of meetings, presentations and proposals were canvassed across the Australian aviation spectrum , the public and the Government. Greg chaired the Surveillance Technology Working Group to examine technology and options and build Industry consensus, and it eventually recommended an ADS-B mandate for all IFR aircraft but leaving mandatory VFR fitment till a latter date. Of course there were both significant successes and significant failures during that time. CASA brought the mandate into effect in 2017 and this resulted in Australian ATC being able to see real aircraft positions of all IFR aircraft on the screen across the whole of Australia – with all the associated safety nets.

In parallel he worked in the international standard setting organisations arguing for earlier deployment rather than waiting for the “perfect” design specification. This included close cooperation with USA, Navcanada and Eurocontrol. He chaired the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) Asia Pacific ADS-B Task force for 13 years with many Asia Pacific countries also adopting ADS-B. He proposed ADS-B data sharing within Asia Pacific and established sharing between Indonesia and Australia giving Australian ATC visibility of aircraft approaching the FIR boundary.

In 2007 he was named in the top 100 most influential engineers in Australia by Engineers Australia regarding his early ADS-B work. In early 2011, he was honoured with the Lawrence Hargrave Award by the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS) for his leadership in the implementation of ADS-B in Australia and the world. Later the same year he travelled to London to receive the RAeS Specialist Silver Award for “exceptional work which has led to significant advances or contribution within the specialist fields of Aerospace”. He continued as a senior engineering advisor at Airservices advocating for a level of impatience to deliver technical solutions to improve safety & efficiency. He has significant involvement in the TAS-WAM multilateration system and the project to replace the Sydney PRM using multilateration technology.

Greg left Airservices in 2017 after a career of 46 years in the one organisation working primarily on big nationally significant systems for the Australia ATC system. After retirement, he was employed part time by Aireon LLC working on Space based ADS-B which was deployed in PNG, India, and Singapore. That ended after 5 years and Greg still dabbles in the concept of ADS-B being required in all manned aircraft to support UAV ” see and avoid” capability. He and his wife Eileen now spend some of their time volunteering at Old Parliament house conducting tours at the Museum of Australian democracy.

Reflecting on his career, Greg considers himself extremely lucky to have had such an enjoyable time working mainly on large multi year projects that mattered, with knowledgeable, dedicated individuals. He was particularly fortunate to have made so many friendships in Australia & around the world through his work.