“The basic components of the system I implemented at Qantas was the direct result of discussions at UTS!”
Dr George Koukis
Diploma of Technology in Commerce, 1979; Doctorate of Business (Honoris Causa), 2017
At a glance
- Migrated to Australia; early career at Qantas.
- Developed pioneering airline profit and risk systems.
- Led Temenos, global leader in core banking software.
- Advocate for ethical leadership and philanthropy.
George Koukis was born in 1946 in Chalkis, Greece and migrated to Australia in 1971. He is married, with two daughters both born in Sydney. From 1971-1980 Koukis held various management positions with the national airline of Australia, Qantas Airways.
During this period he developed various pioneering systems, the most notable ones were:
- The Profit Centre System which allowed profit determination by type of aircraft and sectors and
- A statistical model to calculate risk for insurance premium reasons.
Both proved to be quite successful and as a result Koukis was invited to key note seminars for the airline industry worldwide.
The basic components of the system I implemented at Qantas was the direct result of discussions at UTS!
While at Qantas, Koukis was studying at the UTS, and successfully completed a Diploma of Technology in Commerce in 1979. He is a member of the Australian Society of Accountants and Australian Computer Society.
From 1980 to 1986 Koukis was the Managing Director of the Pacific operations of Management Science America (MSA) based in Sydney, Australia. MSA was the leader of Computer Software business solutions.
Between 1986 and 1993, Koukis developed the CTW Ltd business plan which was financed by IAVM, a Hong Kong based Venture Capital firm.
From 1993 onwards, Koukis was the Chairman and CEO of Temenos Group. He selected a very small unknown company that owned the Banking Software called GLOBUS, renamed the company Temenos which is regarded as the best company worldwide for Corebanking systems. Today Temenos has 57 offices worldwide, almost 5000 people and it is listed in the Zurich main Stock Exchange.
Koukis retired the Chairman position of Temenos on the 1 July 2011. He is still a member of the Board of Directors. Additionally he is on the board of various companies and Chairman of The Classical Opera based in London.
He is a staunch proponent of Ethical Leadership and some of his thoughts have been reported in the Internet. He started and funded a program "Future Leaders for the World" teaching Ethical Leadership skills. He is also known for funding charity programs for hospitals.
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High Jackman completed a Bachelor of Arts in Communications at UTS. He says "My passion and fire for learning was lit at UTS"
Dr Anna Funder gained her Doctorate of Creative Arts at UTS. Her best-selling novel All that I Am, was born in the UTS Tower.
While you may have heard of her inclusive performance style, ongoing charity advocacy (and maybe even her 2020 UTS Young Alumni Award), most people don’t know that Emma is also a skilled filmmaker – having graduated from UTS with a Master of Media Arts Production in 2012.
After Joe was born, who was my last child, I enrolled in a Communications course at UTS and that was to change my life.