It is with great sadness that we acknowledge the sudden passing of Professor Daryll Hull, Co-Director of the Centre for Workforce Futures and Professor within the Macquarie Business School.

With an illustrious career spanning 40 years, Daryll has made substantial impact across industry, business, government and academia both in Australia and overseas. He had run his own successful businesses, assisted others to develop their businesses, and acted as an advisor and mentor for senior executives, academics and university students.

Daryll joined Macquarie University in 2011, and he brought with him a grant to investigate ‘the best workplace’. The Centre for Workforce Futures was established in that year and many grants and industry links followed courtesy of Daryll’s connections, talents and expertise. Daryll was named Co-Director of the Centre in July 2018.

During his time at Macquarie, Daryll collaborated with other Macquarie staff to build relations and undertake projects with Ryde Council, provide input to AMP Capital’s project on ‘the Future of Work’, and he initiated connections with the Hunter Valley’s wine industry, among many other activities.

Mentoring was a great passion of Daryll’s, and his contribution to mentoring of students involved with Enactus was recognised in 2019 when he was named Faculty Adviser of the Year by Enactus Australia at their 2019 national conference.

“Daryll touched many people with his kindness and generosity of spirit, his support and his quick wit, intelligence, and insight,” says Daryll’s Co-Director of the Centre for Workforce Futures, Professor Lucy Taksa. “It has been one of the great pleasures of my life to have worked with him, first at UNSW and over the past decade at Macquarie and to count him as one of my dear friends.”

Lucy and Daryll had been Co-Directors of the Centre since July 2018. Reflecting on those early years, Lucy recollects: “We had great fun developing a new vision and mission for the Centre focused on ‘Decent Work’, paid and unpaid work, caring work and co-operative work – all of which he encapsulated brilliantly in what I called the Centre’s ‘mandala’ and Daryll called a ‘compass’.”

“Envisioning a Future of Work in line with the UN’s Sustainability Goals and particularly ‘Goal 8 – Decent Work’ was a shared passion and one to which Daryll made an immense contribution throughout his life,” continues Lucy.

Most recently, Daryll had been working with key stakeholders on research relating to mental health in the transport and logistics sector through the development of the Steering Healthy Minds project in partnership with TWU and TEACHO Limited.

A respected and valued member of the Macquarie community, Daryll will be sadly missed by his family, friends and colleagues.

Professor Taksa welcomes contributions to the Memorial Booklet she is putting together for Daryll’s family and for posterity. A memorial dinner will be held in his honour early next year. Please contact Lucy Taksa if you would like to be kept apprised of this event: lucy.taksa@mq.edu.au

Learn more about the Centre for Workforce Futures and the projects Daryll was involved with.