Airlie sees equal beauty in numbers and art

by Jo Crompton

Airlie MacLachlan understands the value of creative accounting. With a career in business spanning 30 years that’s to be expected, but it was a lesson she learned long before she worked with some of Australia’s best-known companies including Clayton Utz, Minter Ellison, Outward Bound, and Hynes Lawyers.

It was in her very first class at Bond University, where she was studying a Master of Business Administration (MBA). As one of only four female students in the Bond class of 1990 MBA, and a matureaged student at that, Ms MacLachlan saw her future from a brand new perspective.

“I very clearly remember my first day, first class, it was an accounting class, and the lecturer said to us ‘I’m going to show you that accounting will be the most creative subject you do at university, not the least creative’ and he proceeded to put up a set of numbers and told us that from those he could, within the law, make this into a profit or a loss.

“From that moment I realised that accounting is a very creative space.”

That MBA, Ms MacLachlan says, has enabled her to have a varied and exciting career over the past 30 years leading companies in the private, public, philanthropic and not-for-profit sectors.

Her time at Bond also demonstrated to Ms MacLachlan the value of entrepreneurship and building resilience through failure.

“There’s a lovely moment in the world of business when you understand that you learn more from your mistakes and giving it a crack than you do from your successes,” she says.

“So that piece that comes with being entrepreneurial is about having a go, a calculated go, but having a go. I think with some of our earlier education we didn’t support that so much – it was more ‘learn this set of skills and go and deliver that’.

“Life isn’t like that. When you get out into the business world it’s about how you can be flexible and how you can adapt and grow and contract. It’s a constantly changing environment. The skills that come with entrepreneurial environments, that allow you to be flexible, make a massive difference.”

Ms MacLachlan has helped ensure new Bondies continue to learn those entrepreneurial skills through the Thyne Reid Foundation’s support to establish the University’s revolutionary Transformer program.

The Foundation, of which Ms MacLachlan is a director, has also supported the development of Bond’s women’s rugby and netball teams, Indigenous entrepreneurship and creative arts. Creativity has always been an important part of Ms MacLachlan’s life, providing a crucial foil to the world of business. As a board member of HOTA, the Gold Coast’s Home of the Arts, Ms MacLachlan has been very involved in the

Coast’s burgeoning cultural renaissance. She’s also supporting Somerset Storyfest to go from strength to strength as a director. From its inception as a three-day festival of literature, Storyfest has grown to become a registered cultural organisation hosting an annual calendar of events throughout the Gold Coast and regional Queensland. That passion for creativity, she says, comes from her mother. “My mother learned piano at the Sydney Conservatorium and had a beautiful singing voice. Sadly she had six children who between us have zero skills in either, but she was always making sure we were exposed to the arts at a really young age,” she says. “From her I learnt the importance There’s a lovely of the cultural piece as a balance in life and it has been easy to seek that moment in out, especially on the Gold Coast. The the world of growth in that space over the last 10 business when years has been quite significant and exciting to see. HOTA and Storyfest are you understand both part of that, along with many other that you learn organisations, and I think any of us who live here feel like we’re living in a place more from your that’s more balanced than it used to be.” mistakes and giving it a crack than you do from your successes. Bond University's Vice President Engagement Catherine Marks in conversation with Airlie MacLachlan.

Watch the Orange Chair interview here

Tower still ringing Bondies’ bells

DONATIONS HELP KEEP CAMPUS ICON ON SONG

The sound of bells ringing across campus invokes different memories for Bondies. For some, it’s the noon bell combined with the smell of sausages from Wednesday by the Water; for others, it’s that annoying time when The Saints Go Marching In interrupted a stellar answer in a tutorial.

When they were installed, Bond’s bells were the first of their kind to be hung in Australia. Cast at the Royal Eijsbouts Foundry in Holland in 1989, the nine brass bells are a slightly different shape from traditional bells, which means they can play tunes in a major rather than a minor key. The bells are linked to an electronic system that allows them to be programmed to play different songs at different times of day.

The order of those songs has remained constant – until Giving Day. Donors were given the chance to nominate their favourite songs and the top four donors had their songs played across campus.

Head of Alumni Relations Nicole Walker says 1970s Swedish supergroup ABBA took the gong for most requested bell tower tune: Super Trouper.

Generous donors raised more than $120,000 supporting the Scholarship Fund to promote classroom diversity and equal access to quality education; the Area of Greatest Need Fund to provide immediate support to students in need; and the Endowment Fund to support the long-term financial stability of the University.

In 2023, a new donor recognition circle will launch for donors contributing $2000 to the Area of Greatest Need.

“Alumni really understand the power of a holistic and highly engaged on-campus experience," Mrs Walker says. “I’m excited the University is launching this opportunity to connect and recognise alumni who share a similar vision for the University.”

Top right: Visionary and campus project manager Brian Orr in front of the tower.

Middle: The bell tower and the clock tower at the University’s entrance.

Bottom left: The bells being installed.

Bottom middle: The bells have been much-photographed over the years.

Join The Bells Circle

The Bells Circle is a community of generous benefactors who demonstrate vision and commitment to Bond University through an annual gift of $2000.

Launching in 2023, The Bells Circle donations go directly into the University’s Area of Greatest Need. The Area of Greatest Need exists to support a wide variety of Bond students and alumni who need assistance to take their next step, whether it be assistance with tuition fees, undertaking volunteer work, supporting higher degree research or attending elite athlete competitions. Your support will give them the confidence to succeed and help reduce the financial pressures they are facing. We strive to ensure that all Bond University students have access to the tools they need to succeed in their individual journey.

The Bells Circle members will be recognised with a pin and are invited to attend special events in recognition of the University’s gratitude for their ongoing support.

Invitations are now open for founding members of The Bells Circle. For more information, please contact the Alumni Centre on 5595 1540 or email alumni@bond.edu.au

The bells spark memories for many Bondies.