Alumni Award Recipient: Anthony Barry Hall
Wine, waves and a world-changing tech empire
Innovation has marked every chapter of Anthony Hall’s seemingly eclectic career — from medical software development to sustainable aquaculture and viticulture. Yet long before he co-founded Pro Medicus, now an ASX-100 success story, his fascination with business and technology was incubated in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.
“I went to pharmacy college. My parents were pharmacists,” he recalls. It was an upbringing that blended curiosity with commercial instinct.
This innate curiosity led him to La Trobe University. Initially considering studying arts, advice from La Trobe’s career counsellors saw Anthony switch to science — the first sliding door moment that would completely transform the life of this future billionaire.
Digital deep dive
In the late 1970s, Anthony was at the forefront of the world’s next technological leap.
“La Trobe University had one of the first computers that you could interact with, and that was an astonishing and captivating thing,” he remembers. Working on the DECsystem-10, “which basically looked like 25 fridges in a row,” he gained rare and valuable skills. “It was an enormous advantage having exposure to the computer system.”
However, midway through his PhD in theoretical chemistry, a family crisis changed his path.
“I went on a scuba diving holiday with my parents and my father had a stroke,” he recounts. Needing to be close to his family, the skills he developed at La Trobe proved pivotal. “It allowed me to go home and get a job in the computer industry.”
After exploring several roles, he found work that bridged his scientific and programming experience at a company making chemical instrumentation.
Hear from Anthony
A taste for global impact
A chance meeting altered everything again.
“I met my business partner at a wine tasting and we decided, after a lot of debate, that we would try to build a software business.” As president of the Yarra Valley Wine and Food Society, Anthony laughs that he was simply “trying to get new members,” but the encounter launched Pro Medicus, now a medical imaging software giant.
In the early 1980s, personal computers were still a novelty. “It was pre-internet, I used to have to drive around to every developer's house with a floppy disk,” Anthony chuckles.
Pro Medicus started modestly — no debt, both founders working other jobs and just five developers coding. Today, its technology underpins faster, more accurate diagnostics worldwide.
“Using our systems, the radiologists and doctors can give you more precise and timely results and see things that maybe they couldn't see with other systems,” says Anthony. “Because we deliver results quickly and efficiently, those radiologists are able to either do more work in a day and therefore create more good, or in doing the work, not be exhausted.”
From sea to soil
Beyond Pro Medicus, Anthony has followed his interests into new industries.
His passion for diving and ocean health led him to co-found Yumbah, now Australia’s largest aquaculture company. Driven by a deep commitment to sustainability, Yumbah aims to produce premium seafood and reduce pressure on diminishing wild catch.
His love of wine has also taken a commercial bent. “I’m now silly enough to be trying to grow the grapes and make the wine as well,” Anthony humbly jokes.
Across these diverse passions lies a unifying thread of curiosity and connection. “Basically, my life has been all my business interests and activities. It's this trail of following passions and meeting people.” Increasingly, that trail includes mentoring and helping the next generation make a positive impact on the world — the ripples are potentially infinite.
Anthony completed a Bachelor of Science (Honours) (1978) and a Master of Science (1984) at La Trobe University.