Throughout his career, Dr. Hickman has been active in the application of science and technology to commercial activities.

At the North American Rockwell Science Centre he as responsible for building an active group of metallurgists and materials scientists concerned with practical aspects of aerospace materials. At ACI he reorganised and redirected the Central Technical Centre, placing great emphasis on close collaboration with operating units of the company.

As a Group General Manager, he had management responsibility for a number of companies operating in high technology. As Acting Managing Director of AMDEL in 1977, he was responsible for restructuring the organisation and turning it from a loss to profitable operations.

He was also responsiblefor renegotiating the licence agreements for nucleonic instrumentation which now form the basis for AMDEL's world-wide instrumentation business.

Since returning to AMDEL in 1983, he has continued the commercial development of the organisation into new areas of activity, and considerably developed the geographic spread of AMDEL services and products, both within Australia and in overseas markets.