Simon Smith General Manager Simon is General Manager of the AECgroup and Director of AECeconomics and AECinfotec.

Simon was formerly employed at the Centre for Applied Economic Research and Analysis (CAERA) at James Cook University before moving to the Queensland Treasury, where he was a Senior Finance Officer responsible for programming the Queensland State Model and the development and publishing of the Queensland State Accounts and Queensland Economic Review.

His research interests include national accounts, econometrics, macroeconomic and microeconomic modelling, econometric model simulation and interface software, and relational and time series database systems.

Simon started the Brisbane office of the AECgroup in late 1995.

You head up both AECeconomics and AECinfotec, these are diverse specialisations, how did you get to be so multi-skilled?

I have a degree in both economics and computer science but the two skill sets are actually quite interelated. Economics has many facets - macro, micro, econometrics, etc - and it provides good thinking and analytical skills that are useful generally in business. Computer science, the software side in particular, builds tools to access and analyse data, ie to add value or create information from data. My work at AEC requires a combination of my skills and it is very fulfilling when I can use several at them at once to solve complex problems for clients.

I think a 'can-do' attitude and a belief that you can do almost anything is how you learn to do things and become multi-skilled.

Which is your true love, Computer Science or Economics?

Probably computer science, it is a more exact science, that is, it has to be right or it doesn't work. Whereas with economics, one can always argue a number of angles. A bit of both is the best combination - building software tools to solve economic problems - that is what I truly enjoy.

Any hidden talents?

The art of the brewster featured heavily in my uni days where I was founding member and inaugural president of the JCU Home Brewer's Guild. I have not brewed for many years but do have future plans!

Any interesting hobbies?

I am a di-cast metal model collector of Corgi models (commercial vehicles). I have almost 700 models in the collection and counting!