Perkins recognised in WAIMR name change

FIFTEEN years after the late Harry Perkins' efforts to create the Western Australian Institute for Medical Research bore fruit, the not-for-profit will take his name in a major rebranding move.

As it shifts into new buildings worth around $200 million at Nedlands and Murdoch, WAIMR will become the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, honouring the former farmer and long-running chairman of Wesfarmers, the former rural cooperative which emerged as an industrial powerhouse under his watch. Mr Perkins died in 2002, a day after stepping down from the Wesfarmers chairmanship after 16 years at the helm.

He was the inaugural chairman of WAIMR, an organisation which credits him as the driving force behind its establishment.

According to its 2010-2011 bienniel overview, WAIMR generated more than $44 million in income and administered grants in 2011.