Sir Gilbert Simpson - KNZM QSM

1 Nov

Gil Simpson's skills as a computer programmer took him to Saudi Arabia in 1976 where he started work on his own ideas about how programmes could be written.

After two years, he came back to New Zealand and started developing the Linc product, which was sold to Burroughs (later Unisys) in 1982. He founded Aoraki Corporation, later Jade, which has also become internationally successful.

Simpson has been a director of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, a member of the New Zealand Business Roundtable and president of the Royal Society of New Zealand. Although once refused a University of Canterbury library card because he was not a graduate, he received an honorary doctorate in science in 2002.