The DIA would like to congratulate industrial designer Robert Pataki, our former National Board member, Company Secretary and Hall of Fame inductee, recognised in the Australia Day Honours for contributing to the design profession.

Robert has been a practising designer and influential design contributor for the past forty-plus years and a DIA member since 1978. Pataki graduated in Industrial Design at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and commenced work at John Holland Constructions.

His career has seen him work with major companies such as Phillips (in Australia and Holland), ACI Design Centre and then as General Manager and Design Director of PA Consulting. In 1987 Pataki created The Neo Group of Companies, including Neo Technics, the largest industrial design consultancy in Australia, with offices in Melbourne, Sydney, and Singapore.

Specialising in appliances, professional and technical equipment, homewares, packaging and graphic design, his clients have included Motorola, Phillips, Black and Decker, Vulcan, Varian, Honeywell, GE, Kambrook, and Fischer & Paykel. Pataki served on the DIA's Victorian State Council and was active on the course advisory committee of the Industrial Design programs at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and Chairman of the Course Advisory Committee at Monash University.

In recognition of his services, Robert was made a DIA Fellow in 1985 and inducted into our Hall of Fame in 2007.