Education
Colin Syme studied in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney before joining the Melbourne legal firm of Hedderwick, Fookes and Alston in 1923.
Businessman director lawyer president
Colin Syme studied in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney before joining the Melbourne legal firm of Hedderwick, Fookes and Alston in 1923.
He was noted as Chairman of BHP for nineteen years (1952-1971), and President of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research for seventeen years (1961-1978). Meanwhile, in 1937, he became a director of BHP and many of its subsidiaries, including Tubemakers of Australia, Australian Iron and Steel, Rylands Bros and the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation. He was also a director of several other companies, including Imperial Chemical Industries of Australia and New Zealand, Elder Smith Goldsbrough Mort, the Private Investment Company for Asia and the International Iron and Steel Institute.
In 1972, the Federal Government set up a committee under the Chairmanship of Sir Colin Syme to advise it on science and technology.
lieutenant was known as the Syme Committee. In 1973 he and Doctor Sir Lance Townsend co-chaired an inquiry into Victorian health services, which produced findings widely known as the Syme-Townsend report, a major outcome of which was the creation of the Health Commission of Victoria.
Late in his career, he was President of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research. When he retired from the latter position in 1978, the Board established the Colin Syme Fellowship Fund, to nurture the career development of a talented young investigator within the Institute.