Catherine's involvement with the Internet began while still a student at Adelaide University on a PDP-11 called elecadel. The University was a terrific incubator during that period, producing many people who are involved at a serious level in the industry today. Catherine and Simon, along with several others who were enthusiastic in their use of the university's computers were both employed by the University and worked there at a time when the Vice Chancellors founded AARNet.
After leaving Adelaide University in the late 1980s, Catherine served one hell of an apprenticeship by working for a decade on one of Australia's most innovative defence projects, the Jindalee Over-the-Horizon radar project working first as a contractor at DSTO (Defence Science & Technology Organisation) and then for Telstra. "It was a great training ground", recalls Catherine.
"We were designing the communication systems, which meant that all interfaces on the design had to meet stringent security criteria. We worked with everything on that project, including fibre, satellite and microwave radio links and crypto (cryptographic) links." She was later also the System Security Control Officer in the project.
During her time at Telstra, Catherine set up the first Internet access within Telstra and registered the domain 'telecom.com.au'.
Catherine has continued to play a key role in the innovative trail blazed by the Internode Group. In 2001, she built the Coorong Project, the first publicly available non-Telstra communication network in regional Australia. The $2m project, which used an innovative blend of microwave links and Internet communications, slashed phone call costs for Coorong residents and redefined the possibilities for regional telecommunications in Australia.
Since then, the Coorong Project has continued to deliver nation-leading innovation to the rural region, including Australia's first commercial ADSL2+ services and wireless broadband services.
Catherine says dealing with ground-breaking technology was a constant balancing act between what is possible and what is potentially possible for business deployment. "Working in R&D means that I get to trial some innovative stuff that could really make a difference in this industry for both metropolitan and rural Australia", she says.
"The challenge is that this type of work can be extremely expensive and unprofitable for us if we make the wrong decisions. What I do at Agile is build prototypes of potential projects to better understand the probabilities of success and business profit."
The most important part of any company is its people and we have great people in the Research and Development Group. They are knowledgeable, dedicated and talented and their efforts contribute to the company being consistently at the forefront of this industry.
Currently living near the Adelaide Hills town of Mount Barker, 40km from Adelaide, Catherine and husband David have a 20-acre block where they keep horses and ponies for their two sons, and run a small Suffolk sheep stud. A competition glider pilot and instructor, Catherine is also Manager of the Australian Women's Gliding Team.
