The ARCH Magazine | Issue 2 | 2009 Spring

SPRING | 2009

THE INTERNATIONAL ISSUE

First, they take

Manhattan The value of a global education

Where are the Grow-itworld’s great yourself orators? body parts

Boost your international career

Win a $5000 international getaway

Vice-Chancellor’s message

Spring 2009

Contents

CONTACT US

Features

Editorial enquiries:

6 Grow-it-yourself body parts Bond’s life-saving stem cell research

8 Can human beings and fish co-exist?

Office of Development Bond University Gold Coast Queensland 4229 Australia Ph: +61 7 5595 4403

Resurrecting the lost art of oration

15 Cultural baggage

How to boost your international career

18 Small world, big lessons

The relevance of a global education

22 Bondies in the big apple

New York alumni ponder the meaning of ‘Bondy’

Campus & Alumni

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To join The Arch mailing list please send an email to development@bond.edu.au

5 Conversations at Bond Café 12 International thinkers 26 Think back 28 How to spend an inheritance

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IT IS said that if you sit outside a café

on La Canebière, the main boulevarde in Marseille, France, for long enough, you will see the entire world walk by.

Sometimes, Bond University’s Gold Coast campus can feel much the same.

The process we understand to be globalisation, during which communities across the planet establish progressively closer contacts, has been going on for centuries. But it is only in the past few generations that it has truly taken wing.

More recent developments in technology, air travel and communications have fueled the process, and our world today is more ‘interconnected’ than it has ever been. Political elections in one nation can impact the financial markets of another within seconds. Commodities, skills and intellectual property skim across continents. Laws are being enacted at an international level. And ideas, languages and pop culture transcend vast geographical borders.

In this context, today’s business, political and social leaders must fully understand the ‘interconnected’ world in which they live, and the many cultures that help to form it, in order to succeed.

As my colleague Professor Raoul Mortley, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and former

Vice-Chancellor, points out in our story ‘Small World, Big Lessons’, “No business leader or political leader can survive in a monoculture.”

Bond University is producing the world’s future leaders, so it is vital that we provide our students with a truly international learning experience. With this in mind, our curricula are infused with global perspectives; our academic staff-members are of diverse international backgrounds; we provide numerous opportunities for international study and work experience; and our students themselves represent more than 80 different nations.

After they graduate, many of our international students return to their home countries, and a number of Australian students head overseas to live and work.

Today, the international education and experience they received at our University has enabled these Bondies to carve out successful niches for both their professional and social lives in more than 100 countries worldwide.

This issue of The Arch celebrates the Bond students, alumni and teachers who represent what it means to be, like Bond University itself, international in perspective and uniquely Australian in character.

Opinion 3 Vice-Chancellor’s message 4 Biker gangs: beyond reasonable doubt?

14 Crime & punishment in Aboriginal law

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Vice-Chancellor and President

25 Competition: Win a $5000 getaway 30 News: Yes, (young) Prime Minister 31 News: Invest in a sustainable future

Spring 2009

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02

Et Cetera

Professor Robert Stable

Opinion

beyond reasonable doubt?

A man was killed at Sydney airport in March 2009 during a biker gang dispute that escalated out of control, and the frightened public clamoured for action.

Several governments have imposed or considered strict new laws to prevent gangs from meeting. But Bond University’s Chair of Criminology, Professor Paul Wilson, says the answer lies in intelligence and mediation, not repression.

ANTI-BIKER gang laws

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good progress in curbing crime among biker groups by smart, intelligence-led policing, without draconian laws. Let’s not forget like the Crimes (Criminal that in Queensland we have extensive electronic monitoring Organisations) Act of NSW, laws and powerful laws that enable crime commissions such as similar legislation in South the CMC to compel people to answer questions.

Australia and proposed In addition, there is now a body of evidence that outlines legislation in other States, effective law enforcement practices and crime prevention are repugnant legislations the methods that deal with gang-related violence. These include likes of which we have not encouraging bike club mediations which, it should be noted, the seen since the constitutional clubs have already instigated themselves through the formation failure of the of the United Motorcycle Communist Queensland (UMCQ).

I strongly oppose these [biker] Party Sadly, despite government laws: they are unnecessary, Dissolution promises of public consultation Act of 1950. counterproductive, and shred the before introducing the tough I strongly traditional laws of evidence and new laws, the UMCQ has not oppose these been consulted, nor have any presumption of innocence laws: they are other critics of these measures. unnecessary, This is a great pity, because we hardly need our legal rights counterproductive, and shred further eroded by laws that punish groups for crimes they might the traditional laws of evidence and presumption of innocence. commit in the future, in contrast to laws that target individuals These laws give courts the power to declare an association a for crimes they have actually committed in the past. ‘criminal association’, apply control orders against individuals, and prevent members of declared organisations from meeting.

They allow for secret court hearings at which defendants are not allowed to hear the allegations against them, and the abolition of the requirement of proof beyond reasonable doubt.

Yet such measures are likely to make matters worse. Laws that outlawed motorcycle gangs in Canada in 1997 led to an avalanche of murders, fire-bombings and the institution of the State itself coming under attack. Bikers were driven underground and the violence escalated rather than decreased.

Moreover, the level of violence committed by bikers in Australia is not as extensive as the media would sometimes lead us to believe. Recent figures presented to the Joint Parliamentary Professor Paul Wilson is a forensic psychologist Committee to review the Australian Crime Commission’s and criminologist, and Bond University’s Chair of Serious and Organised Crimes Act by a senior NSW Police Criminology. Professor Wilson recently returned from Superintendent and academic Dr Art Veno revealed that gangCambodia, where he observed and is now writing on related violence, including violence generated by street, ethnic the genocide trial of Duch, the commander of S-21, the and biker groups, represented just 0.6 percent of all crime, with notorious prison where 14,000 men, women and children biker-related violence estimated to account for half of that again. were incarcerated, interrogated and tortured.

And there are alternative courses of action to prevent gang violence. Other countries, Denmark being one, have made

Conversations

at Bond Café From Bengali politics to multi-billion dollar corporations, Bond University’s new Chancellor Helen Nugent has successfully navigated diverse careers. Here, she shares a little of that journey with The Arch.

I STARTED my career as a historian and my doctorate

the things I enjoy is talking to students, even joining them at the Bond Café. The sense of community they passionately talk about is extremely heartening. It is something we must work hard to retain.

is in Indian history, specifically Bengali politics from 1935 to 1947. However, my teaching was in a broader field. At the University of Queensland, I taught courses in the history of Asian civilizations, covering India, China, Japan and southeast Asia.

After 10 years of teaching, I moved across to the business sector. I gained my MBA at Harvard Business School in 1982 and in the same year, I joined McKinsey & Company as an Associate, and ultimately became a partner.

Later, I became Professor in Management and Director of the MBA program at the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM).

This role, alongside my experience studying at Harvard, gave me a real insight into what a committed, high-quality faculty could achieve, and showed me what the very best in private university education had to offer. This is knowledge that I can also apply here at Bond.

In my opinion, Bond is a very fine institution that has huge potential to be truly world class.

For the past 10 years I have been a professional company director, serving on boards such as Macquarie, Origin Energy and Freehills, as well as being Chairman of Swiss Re Life and Health (Australia) and Funds SA, a $14 billion investment fund of the South Australian Government. Prior to that, as Director of Strategy at Westpac, I was a member of the Throughout my career there are two executive team that turned the Bank things about which I have always cared around in the tumultuous early 1990s. deeply: education and the arts. I have I now appreciate more fully the I really gained an appreciation chaired a number of boards and councils of Bond and how it contributed to strong sense of community that is so in both fields. the diversity of higher education in Bond University represents a chance for much part of the Bond experience Australia when I became a member me to contribute further to education. of the recent Bradley Review into the I am thrilled to take this opportunity. tertiary sector.

I have my sights set on Bond being world renowned for the Becoming Chancellor has confirmed my understanding of quality of student experience, its outstanding and committed Bond’s outstanding commitment to a quality education. faculty and staff, and the superior research we deliver in What I now more fully appreciate is the strong sense of selected fields. I am up for that challenge and I think my community that is integral to the Bond experience. One of colleagues on the Council are as well.

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Biker gangs:

Campus

Research

Growing and transplanting the mandible was the product of 10 years of research, but Warnke says this was relatively simple compared with what is to follow. Bone is a single tissue to cultivate. To grow an entire organ, such as a liver or a kidney, is an infinitely more complex process. But that is the goal.

The waiting list for organ transplants stretches into the hundreds of thousands, worldwide, and thousands of patients die while they wait. If Warnke can learn to grow replacement organs, many thousands of lives will be saved.

In addition, using the process to grow replacement bone and tissue parts (such as joints) lessens the operative burden and avoids the creation of secondary skeletal defects in the patient, caused by the process of harvesting bone grafts.

How, then, are these ‘home grown parts’ created?

A human embryo starts with one cell, gradually increasing and growing more complex during nine months in the womb and then over the course of the person’s life. Scientists do not have the luxury of this time.

“You can’t start with one cell to grow an organ because this takes 17 years or so until you have the full size of an adult kidney or liver, and the patient doesn’t have this time,” Warnke says. “Somehow, a replacement organ has to be grown in one year or two years’ time inside the body, so we have to be fast.”

To gather enough stem cells to start to grow an organ, Warnke harvests tissue that the patient has a lot of, such as skin or immune (competent) cells. Then, “you have to change at least four little gene sequences in the cell to develop it backwards, so that the adult cell turns into a baby stem cell again.” Just a square centimetre of skin cells changed in this way can generate thousands of stem cells.

“Then,” says Warnke, “it starts.”

If the stem cells are not told what kinds of cells to become, they simply disappear into the blood stream and are washed away. Therefore, Warnke is developing a kind of ‘remote control’ to create niches, or homes, in which the stem cells can settle down.

In the case of the mandibular replacement, Warnke and his team used three-dimensional CT (computed tomography) scans and computer-aided design techniques to create an ideal virtual replacement for the mandibular defect. They used this data to create a titanium mesh cage inside which the bone was grown, and the whole was ‘incubated’ in the patient’s back.

“We might use the patient’s own stem cells, for example, floating around in the blood. Or we extract stem cells from the patient, prior to surgery. For example, we extract stem cells from the bone marrow, then we re-inject these stem cells into the patient after we have done the procedure. The new stem cells settle down inside an artificial matrix in the shape of the desired organ, which we also implant into the patient,

and our ‘remote control’ guides the stem cells to find their correct place.”

This research is very much creational, Warnke says. His group was the first to have achieved such a remote control process with bone. Now, Warnke is on the path to doing the same with complex organ cell structures. But it could take another 20 or so years.

“We are increasing the hurdle piece by piece. The mandible took us 10 years to make. Now we are working on joints.

More complex tissue could be another 10 or 15 years after that.”

But sometimes, scientists do get lucky.

In the case of the mandible, Warnke found that after implanting just a piece of the bone tissue, the patient’s body started to integrate the new tissue, and form bone around it. It’s possible that Warnke may only have to grow a piece of organ tissue in the lab, rather than the whole organ, and then the patient’s body will make more out of it after it has been implanted.

Certainly, we know from the human embryo that the human body is capable of growing its own replacement organs.

“That is something we always keep in mind. There is a way, but we have to find it. There is no GPS existing at the moment, but we are developing the map for the GPS,” Warnke says.

“I think what’s most exciting is that we are taking the first step. Like walking on the moon. Discovering the ‘terra incognita’, the unknown world, is in the nature of man. That’s what we’re all about.”

Somehow, a replacement organ has to be grown in one year or two years’ time inside the body

Grow-it-yourself body parts Transplant patients growing their own new organs?

A Bond University scientist is leading the way in stem cell research that could literally save thousands of lives.

PATRICK WARNKE, Bond University’s new Professor

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of Surgery, would have you believe that the stem cell research he is pioneering is at once like a school, an orchestra and an expedition into the unknown.

The school and orchestra are metaphors Warnke employs to try to explain how he and his team intend, via ‘remote control’, to direct stem cells implanted in the human body to form themselves into complex human tissue like bones, joints and ultimately organs, that may then be used for transplants.

He calls the process ‘an expedition into the unknown’ because that’s exactly what it is: exploratory science.

In 2004, Professor Warnke and a team of European and Australian scientists grew a piece of bone – a mandible – not in the laboratory, but in a man: on his back. Essentially, they created the world’s first ‘human bioreactor’. After seven weeks, they successfully transplanted that mandible into the man’s jaw and one month later, the man ate his first solid meal in nine

years (bread and sausages). This was the first time in history that scientists were able to grow and transplant large pieces of human tissue.

“Many tissue engineers are trying to grow organs or pieces of the human body as replacements,” Warnke explains, “but most of them are doing this in the laboratory. It has been shown that with this technique, using artificial bioreactors, you are able to grow maybe sugar-cube sized pieces of tissue or bone. But that is all, because you have a lack of blood supply to the artificial bioreactors.”

What makes Warnke and his team’s achievement such an exciting breakthrough is that by using a human - rather than an artificial - bioreactor, they are paving the way to grow large, complex, replacement body parts. If they are successful, they could effectively do away with the need for the organ transplant waiting list, saving and transforming literally thousands of lives, now and for centuries to come.

Teaching at Bond University German-born Professor Patrick Warnke joined Bond as Professor of Surgery in the Faculty of Health, Sciences & Medicine in 2009.

“Bond is a young, pioneering university, and I think Australia is much more open and visionary than the United States and Europe. Working in Australia is a chance to be one of the first to translate laboratory findings into clinical practice.

“I love teaching and I’m very used to integrating students into my research. I had more than 20 thesis students in Germany, and I motivated them to do ‘non-boring’ research on topics they enjoyed talking about.

“It’s one of the oldest principles in medicine to mentor pupils. I think it is a great moment to share a beer with one of your students when they have finished their thesis.

Your pupil has turned into your equal colleague. That is good fun.”

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Professor Patrick Warnke (centre) in a Bond University laboratory with undergraduate students Will Cundy (left) and Sally Buchanan (right)

Education

Can human beings and fish

co-exist?

Where are the world’s great orators? From Aristotle to Obama, good public speaking has been a key element of leadership for thousands of years.

“YOU CANNOT be a great leader without great

his natural stammer, he practiced speaking with pebbles in his mouth. To build up vocal strength, he ran with an open mouth ‘to expand his lungs’. To cure his shortness of breath, he uttered long sentences while walking quickly up hill. To be heard over the clamour of the Greek assembly, he would stand in stormy weather on the seashore at Phalerum and declaim against the roar of the waves. To gain ‘graceful action’ he would practice for hours in front of a tall mirror.

And finally, to stop himself from going out and neglecting his studies, he shaved the hair from half of his head. The fear of ridicule forced him to stay indoors until it grew back.

public speaking skills.”

These are the potentially controversial words of Assistant Professor Mike Grenby, who has lectured in journalism and public speaking at Bond University for more than a decade.

“People need to hear you and look at you, not just read what you’ve written,” Grenby says. “We’re a very visual society. We need to see that you’re not just standing there with your mouth closed or reading subtitles on the screen.

You might be the most brilliant person but if you can’t get your messages across both in writing and orally, you’re not going to go too far.”

Global public speaking body Toastmasters International would concur. “One of the most important elements of leadership is the ability to You might be the motivate people,” the organisation insists.

Furthermore, Grenby says persuasive, most brilliant person motivational speaking is essential but if you can’t get your to business success. Informing and entertaining may be relatively easy, he messages across… you’re concedes, but persuading somebody to not going to go too far change their point of view or do something Mike Grenby they might not have considered is difficult, a psychological skill embedded in oration.

A fate worse than death?

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The art of public speaking as we know it originated with the Greeks. The philosopher Aristotle is credited with introducing the art, while statesman Pericles was said to have ushered in a ‘golden age of eloquence’ by which he led Athens for many decades. But it is the weak and sickly Demosthenes who is remembered as the greatest orator of Greece and, perhaps, of all time.

Too physically frail to train at the gymnasium or succeed in battle, Demosthenes instead devoted his entire life to successful oratory. The ancient Athenians were passionately fond of public speaking, and ardently cultivated it. ‘Oratory’ to the Athenians meant so much more than reciting a good and persuasive speech. Skillful oratory was also in the speaker’s vocal delivery, body language and clever techniques.

Demosthenes improved his mind by reading from the poets Sophocles and Euripides, the great historian Thucydides, and attending the teachings of the philosopher Plato. To overcome

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The golden age of eloquence

‘Fear of ridicule’ has, it seems, a very different impact on contemporary would-be public speakers. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld once famously quoted studies that found public speaking to be our No. 1 fear, trumping even the dread of dying.

“This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy,” he quipped.

And then there are those who are not necessarily afraid of public speaking, but probably should be. Former US president George W Bush, for example, was notorious for his oratory mishaps.

“And so, in my State of the – my State of the Union – or state – my speech to the nation, whatever you want to call it. Speech to the nation. I asked Americans to give 4000 years – 4000 hours over the next – the rest of your life – of service to America.

That’s what I asked – 4000 hours,” he blundered in 2002.

Or consider the eternally-puzzling but gloriously entertaining declaration made during Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign: “I know that human beings and fish can coexist peacefully.”

“He was not good,” Grenby says in a masterful understatement. “Bush was terrible, people used to pick on him as an example of a bad speaker.”

Of course President Bush does not hold the exclusive title to oratory debacle. “This is a great day for France!” proclaimed President Richard Nixon at the funeral of Charles De Gaulle.

Translations can often add to the confusion. British soldier, writer and former governor of the Sinai Peninsula, the late Claude Scudamore Jarvis, told the following story of his adventures in speaking Arabic.

Education

Mike Grenby’s top tips for successful public speaking:

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1. Know and take care of your audience 2. Meet the audience’s expectations and help people feel better about themselves 3. What is your message? Sum up your main points in 10 seconds 4. Public speaking is a conversation with good eye contact 5. Preparation prevents panic 6. To reduce nerves focus on your message, not your feelings 7. Be yourself, and be passionate about your topic 8. Smile and have fun

Oratory boot-camp

Every student at Bond University is required to take a core subject in either public speaking or communication, if they wish to earn a Bond degree.

Even those who are not blessed with an innate inclination to public speaking can be taught, Grenby says, although not quite in the traumatic manner of Demosthenes’ schooling.

“In a word, ‘encouragement’,” Grenby says. “That’s what Bond is known for, its pastoral care where you know your students and really support them. So you know the ones who are having difficulty and you find ways of getting them up at the beginning with someone else, so the focus is not just on them.

“You support them and help them and do things in groups.

And week after week if you keep doing it, it desensitises them to the fear. And after 12 weeks, they can get up and do anything.

Whether they are toga speeches or simultaneous debates, they can do all those things.

“It’s like boot-camp. You’re all going through it together and you support each other. We refine those techniques and approaches semester after semester, and it works well.”

Public speaking in decline?

All this training is not before time. Many believe the art of oratory, of powerful, persuasive public speaking, is in decline.

Not long after Franklin Roosevelt took US office during the Great Depression, he instigated his now-famous fireside chats.

“The country was demoralized and frightened, and Roosevelt’s warm, grandfatherly voice poured into millions of American homes, bringing a sense of comfort and security,” explain Brett and Kate McKay in the online publication ‘The Art of Manliness’. And after Roosevelt, Americans came to expect the same ‘folksy’ speaking approach from all their presidents.

McKay and McKay believe the reception and praise given to Barack Obama’s speeches suggest an untapped hunger among American and indeed global citizens for oratory that will inspire them and touch their ideals.

However, Australian commentator and Baptist pastor Stan Fetting strongly disagrees. “Anyone with a team of speech writers, spin doctors, and auto-cue technicians is a great performer, rather than a great orator,” he insists. Fetting laments the death of oration in Australia as well. “Back here

in Australia, the current incumbents saying, and they are passionate about it, of Federal Parliament are a dull and then this conviction will come through dreary lot when it comes to oration,” in their speech. Certainly the orators that he says.

Grenby identifies as ‘great’ are marked by Grenby is not quite as disparaging passion and conviction. as Fetting, but when asked to name “Churchill was great and powerful, great orators in Australian politics, he without needing to scream. pauses before responding. “I thought “Even Anthony Robbins inspires and John Howard was a good speaker. motivates a lot of people. The man charges You might not agree with his politics a fortune and has made a huge business of but I thought he was an effective what he does. He’s got passion and you speaker. I think Kevin Rudd is good in see that.” his own way too. Our politicians tend In fact, Grenby believes that passion is to be fairly reasonable.” so important to successful public speaking Grenby says the ‘tall poppy’ that he has changed the way he asks his syndrome can get in students to evaluate the way of Australian one another’s speeches oratory excellence.

Bond is known in Bond classes.

“You don’t want for its pastoral care Students are required to stand out in to write down what where you know your Australia because they like about the students and really people throw things speaker, what the at you! Whereas support them speaker should work in America, you’re Mike Grenby on, and whether or not praised for standing the speaker appeared up and saying how nervous. Now, he has added a fourth good you are. Although Australian evaluation: “rate their passion from zero understatement and modesty is in to five.” many ways a good thing. America So what is more important, the method I think goes almost too far the of delivery – the passion – or the actual other way.” speech? Grenby believes the method comes first.

“It’s like you sell the sizzle as much as So what is it that makes a speaker you sell the steak. And the sizzle comes better than merely good, effective first, doesn’t it, and the smell. But if you or reasonable? bite into it and you realise it isn’t that Passion is the key, according to good, you’re let down. So the delivery is Grenby, and the mark of a great important, but if there’s no substance to orator, “whether it’s high passion or the speech behind the delivery, you very from the soul quietly spoken passion.” quickly deflate.”

If a speaker believes in what they are Order up, Australia.

Bond University Amphitheatre The latest addition to Bond’s Gold Coast campus is the multi-purpose ADCO Amphitheatre and Alumni Court. With seating for up to 400, the amphitheatre will enhance Bond’s strong oral tradition and create a venue for students and members of the community to participate in public speaking, debate, theatre and artistic expression. The amphitheatre was partly funded by a generous gift from ADCO, alongside donations from alumni, students, teachers, parents, community members and local businesses to the Bond University Building Fund.

Sell the sizzle

Spring 2009

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“I was telling a large gathering of sheikhs about a forthcoming agricultural exhibition. Unfortunately, I gave the Arabic word for exhibition marad a short first ‘a’ instead of a long one, and my audience was horrified to learn that a virulent epidemic was about to take place.”

And imagine the consternation of former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke’s Japanese audience when his Tokyo-based interpreter made an attempt at a literal translation of “We’re not going to play funny buggers with you.”

Thankfully for the Bushs, Nixons, Jarvis’ and Hawkes of this world, as well as the rest of us who break out in a cold sweat at just the thought of addressing a room full of eyes and ears, public speaking skills – and confidence – can be taught.

Campus

News

International

Businesses are in one way the customers of universities

thinkers

Professor Garry Marchant

They’ve taught in universities across the world, from Auckland to Paris and Bergen to New York. These four Bond scholars truly think globally and act locally.

Professor Elizabeth Roberts

Professor Neil Kirkpatrick

Professor Garry Marchant

Tina Hunter

International universities: Cornell University (USA, Australia, France), Chinese University of Hong Kong (China), Auckland University of Technology (NZ)

Countries: United Arab Emirates, Australia (Bond University)

International universities: University of Michigan (USA), University of Texas (USA), INSEAD (France), University of Connecticut (USA)

International universities: University of Bergen (Norway)

“I have been most fortunate to gain teaching and administrative experience through Cornell University in the US, Canberra and Paris, as well as through my work with the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Auckland University of Technology.

“Given the international nature of the tourism and hotel management industry, I believe the internationalisation of our curriculum is essential in order to best prepare our students to excel in this dynamic, global industry.

“Most Bond students aspire to be leaders, and the ability to lead in highly diverse organisational settings will require them to adopt a global perspective, regardless of whether they plan to work abroad or remain in Australia.

“We internationalise our programs through the diversity of the School’s academic staff (from Germany, NZ, the UK and the US), case-based assessments and strong industry ties.

“The opportunity to launch this School is a career highlight to date. Every time I fly to the Gold Coast and see the skyline, I realise how fortunate I am to work at a world class university and live in such a vibrant and dynamic environment.”

“My role at Bond enables me to support students and staff with my personal perspectives on how their work may be tailored to meet the needs of the industry.

“I have an opportunity to help students better understand what will be required of them. I help them learn how to differentiate themselves in the marketplace to secure a role they will relish and add value to their new employer.

“Working closely with Bond University is both stimulating and rewarding. I am a firm believer that it is possible to help shape the careers of students through the delivery of focused, personal feedback and direction.

“Much of my work concerns change-management, getting folks to think in a different way. My work with Bond is part of that process, both in helping students and staff to think in a different way, but also in allowing me the opportunity to continue to develop my own ideas through new perspectives.

“I was personally fortunate to have benefited from working with a mentor in the early stages of my career, and I very much hope that the guidance and advice I can offer students will assist them to achieve their goals.”

“The world has become increasingly smaller and interconnected during the past 50 years. Today, no matter what your career, you will be working in a global context and interacting with people from a variety of backgrounds.

“International insights and exposure also contribute to the development of an open-minded, flexible thinking process, which is essential for adapting to a fast-paced global workplace.

“Businesses are in one way the customers of universities. They consume the main product – graduates – by providing them with jobs. Universities like Bond work closely with businesses to understand their needs and deliver programs that ensure that Bond graduates deliver on those needs.

“Within the university, academic partnerships enrich each party through the exchange of staff and students, which in turn helps improve the programs and research of both partners.

“Students benefit from interaction with students from different backgrounds, and from being taught by staff who come from a different tradition and way of thinking. Communities benefit from this diversity of experience, via the rich nature of the various cultures to which they are exposed.”

“The exposure to international insights is crucial for Australian students. I went on exchange to the University of Bergen when I was a law student at Bond and it radically changed my life.

“Academic partnerships are vital for the development of ideas, the exchange of information, and the establishment of relationships that will enhance these goals. The relationship should be strengthened and enhanced so that knowledge and ideas are freely shared, and students from the institutions are also able to embark on new experiences.

“For the community, there is the benefit of a new generation of students that will enter the community with a global perspective, fresh ideas, and the capacity to generate ideas and problem solve from a unique perspective.

“Bond is a beautiful campus, but it is not the University’s external beauty that is its value. It is the people within it. One of the things I missed the most was my faculty and my colleagues.

The support and knowledge in the faculty is second to none.

“The draw card that bought me back and will keep me here is the way Bond supports its academics and fosters a collegiate atmosphere. This is something that we can never lose.”

Adjunct Professor, Mirvac School of Sustainable Development

Deputy Vice Chancellor and Provost

Senior Teaching Fellow, Faculty of Law

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012

Head of School of Hotel, Resort & Tourism Management

Opinion

Career

Crime&punishment in Aboriginal law While painting a major work during a residency on campus at Bond University, prominent artist and senior Aboriginal lawman Yidumduma Bill Harney talks about how punishment is exacted under Aboriginal customary law.

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come together and recognise one another, they can change the direction everything is heading in.

Whether they go punishing the traditional way, on the land, or by white law, going behind bars, both parties when they come together should be recognised.

It takes a while before anybody can be a proper Aboriginal lawman. Just like the people going to school, ordinary white school: you start in kindergarten to seventh grade then eight, ten, twelve. Then he has to go to the university.

I just been learning in the ‘bush university’. Never went to school in my life. But I got a good mind and when I was a little one in the bush growing up in the Aboriginal camp, I was taught all sorts of things from the Aboriginal law way. And when I was a stockman I watch and study everything.

At the same time I was very quiet, from the Aboriginal side and the white man side, then I start putting all this law together in my mind. I put those two laws together to understand.

When we teach the young Aboriginal ones about this Aboriginal customary law, first we teach him about painting, normal painting. Later on, he gets taught by the elders. You teach the young ones in the bush university schooling all about the painting. Like all these different circles you can see on the painting, and the shapes of people sitting in grooves. You teach them what they can take from it.

The Bond painting is about how the young people can be punished in Wardaman customary law.

In domestic violence, two or three elders take him out to get punished in the law ground, outside in the sun with a shady tree. For one week he’s not allowed to move around, he’s not allowed to walk out, he’s not allowed to talk.

In the white man law they call it a sentence. In Wardaman law, we take it and we punish you! When they are looking after him all week, he comes out and they go up to the law people.

That’s the time he gets served and gets training of the law. He learns wood-carving, singing, ceremonial decoration, dancing, ceremonial law.

He walks around to recognise all the different plants and soils, must learn to treat the plants right, and mustn’t destroy any country around because everything is spiritual: leave it in peace.

And then they come back to the shady tree again, and he talks about it, and we all talk about it. He stays for maybe one year or six months or three months. All this time he always has his head down. He got a thing rigged up on his neck with string and a little turkey bone or quartz stone, put together with wax, and he carry that to keep him down silent. He not allowed to mix with anyone, he not allowed to walk out till he got to work.

When time’s up from the law place, we take him down to learn in the white man way.

White man training for fencing, yard building, mustering cattle, riding horses, breaking in horses, doing all sorts of things.

When he doing them things he not allowed to go out of hand, not allowed to break the law.

Otherwise they get back to the bush again, back to the law place. When we recognise that he can pull through it, we let him go and he a free man.

Cultural

baggage Want to sail your career across international borders? Strategic planning and solid networking will help you succeed.

Yidumduma Bill Harney

is the last remaining senior custodian of the law of the Wardaman people, an Aboriginal nation in the Northern Territory (NT). He is also an internationally-respected artist, with works displayed in the National Gallery of Australia, Federal Parliament and the NT Legislative Assembly.

Harney was an artist-in-residence at Bond University in September 2009, painting an original work of art on ‘The Law of the Wardaman People’ that now hangs in the Law building. The residency was part of the Faculty of Law’s 20th anniversary celebrations for 2009.

Bond alumnus Cameron Andersen floats a traditional sheep’s-bladder raft along the Ningxia River beneath the Great Wall of China

Spring 2009

15

IF ABORIGINAL customary law and white law

Career

develop a migration and employment strategy, says professional careers advisor Kirsty Mitchell. This applies whether you intend to travel to work in overseas locations, or you are an international student hoping to remain and work in Australia.

Mitchell is the Employment Services Manager at Bond University’s dedicated Career Development Centre, and spends her days helping students and alumni develop careful plans for their future careers.

Strategy, forward thinking and planning are integral to professional and personal success in the international market, agrees Managing Director of Oncore Group, Brenton Henderson. Oncore Group is a suite of companies offering international careers advice and services. For example, Oncore’s myOE provides free support and guidance to professionals who want to live and work overseas.

Henderson says the biggest misconception that people hold when they consider working overseas is that getting work will be the same process as it is in Australia.

“It is not that it is any more difficult,” he is quick to reassure international job-hunters, “you just have to learn the new rules and play the game accordingly.”

The same applies to international students and professionals who want to live and work in Australia. “Many of Bond’s international students want to stay on and work in Australia after they graduate,” Mitchell says. “So we help them develop a strategy to achieve this goal.”

In fact, so many Bond students hope to live and work in Australia that the Centre hosts a Migration Information Expo in the second week of every semester.

“What’s most important to us at the Career Development Centre is taking students and alumni from where they are at and helping them get to where they want to be,” Mitchell says. “The key is that we believe in them. We know them personally and we understand their goals. We help them plan realistic steps to achieve those goals.”

When it comes to getting that all-important working visa and navigating the complexities of overseas immigration law, Henderson is adamant: go straight to the professionals. “Most visa agencies offer good information on their websites, and that

Leverage your Bond alumni networks: there are alumni in more than 100 countries and they will each have their own set of contacts Kirsty Mitchell

part is free,” he points out. “Also, find a ‘No visa, no fee’ service.

They will ensure that your application is rock solid before it is submitted. The fee is worth the peace of mind.”

Research the location Too many people dream of taking their careers to Paris, New York or Tashkent and assume that things will just fall into place when they get there, Mitchell says.

“I am constantly amazed at how many people fail to respect even basic market trends before they pack up and look for work in a foreign country. And in many cases, they fail.”

A good place to start is Going Global, an online database that has information on more than 20 countries, including employment and career information, visa guidelines, job listings and company listings.

If you are an alumnus, student or teacher at Bond, visit the Career Development Centre’s online CareerHub (https:// careerhub.bond.edu.au/Login.chpx?ReturnUrl=%2fDefault. chpx) and log in to start using Going Global.

As a presenter for Getaway China (and three other TV shows), former lawyer and Bond alumnus Cameron Andersen travels all over the world for work.

“Before I go to any new country, I look it up on Wikipedia for summaries of geography, demographics, climate, economy,” he says. “Travel books are good but they tend to just focus on someone who’s going to be a tourist, not a business traveller.

“I learn a little of the language. It doesn’t matter how well they speak English: if you can say ‘hello’, ‘good bye’, ‘thank you’, ‘sorry’ and ‘you’re welcome’, it’s priceless. You have a blast just saying that to anyone, and it helps break the ice.

“I try to find out what the country is famous for, what they’re proud of, so that I can talk to them about something that makes them happy. You want people to feel good about themselves when you’re talking to them. That way, whether you’re doing a business deal or filming for TV, they’ll want to help you.”

For Henderson, preparation is all about getting out of your safety zone. “Watch lots of foreign films with subtitles and try as much different food as you can,” he says. “Then... it’s all about having fun!”

“As we tell our customers at myOE, getting a job is a job in where you are now and in your desired location. Use their job itself. Work hard and smart until you get that first job in your boards, access their networks, ask their advice. new country. After the first role, things will open up and your “Attend as many national and international conferences as local experience will put you in good stead to progress your possible to build up your professional network as well as your career further.” industry knowledge,” she says. “Even if you can’t make it to the Mitchell agrees that by building on and nurturing your conferences, look online at the lists of attendees: this will tell existing personal and professional networks, you can generate you who the key players are in your industry. a social environment in which it is more likely that you will be “And don’t forget your local Chamber of Commerce. There advised of – and recommended for – placements in your goal are Chambers of Commerce in most regions and cities, and industry, role and location. many people overlook these very “Networks are extremely useful networking bodies.” important,” she says. “Leverage your Bond alumni networks: there are alumni in more than 100 countries and they will each have their own set “What helped me the most when of contacts.”

I moved to China,” Andersen Andersen can attest to the value says, “was that I totally absorbed of this advice. With a Bachelor of everything about the culture. I kept Laws, an MA in Chinese Studies and an open mind, and – this is the key an ‘exchange semester’ at Soochow point – I did not get too caught up University in China under his belt, in the expatriate community. That’s all from Bond, Andersen wanted his probably one of the main things that Cameron Andersen first job to be in a local law firm in led to my success today.

Shanghai. So he turned to his “I spent my weekends with my fellow Bondies. friends from the office, Chinese “I went to Bond and asked if there were any alumni who were people. I’d go out and have dinner and I’d be eating Chinese partners in law firms in Shanghai. They said there was one food and we’d have karaoke. And all the while, I’d be speaking partner in a firm, and they forwarded my resume on to him.

Chinese and getting used to the culture.

“I think that’s the best way. You don’t want to apply for a job “Once the culture is set, you find that a lot of it flows through via a website and be jumbled up with all the other applicants. to your working style. You know how to communicate a lot The Bondy there forwarded my resume to the founding partner, better with the other staff, and you can discuss issues better with and next news I got a call from him. I ended up working there your clients.” for three years.

Of course, if Andersen’s methods seem a little extreme, there “That was the key. Obviously there was some kind of affiliation are still expatriate networks in most countries where you can with the partner because we had shared Bond experiences: there find support and advice when you arrive. was a common understanding in the firm that we’d both been “Do not be afraid to get along to a new networking function through the same education. And that allowed me access to the in your new country,” says Henderson. “If you don’t like the founding partner, which I don’t think I’d have gained otherwise.” vibe, don’t go back. And if you’re homesick, find one good bar In addition to following up on your fellow Bondies, Mitchell that has a connection to home - food, sport or crowd - but don’t says to join professional associations for your industry, both hang out there all the time. It’s all about new experiences.”

I try to find out what the country is famous for, what they’re proud of, so that I can talk to them about something that makes them happy

Cameron Andersen: lawyer to larrikin?

Nurture your networks

16

To find a job overseas, “Network, network, network,” insists Henderson.

For UK and other Commonwealth countries it can be easier for Australian citizens, as ‘right of passage’ visas exist. “But after that, it’s just elbow-grease,” he says.

Absorb the culture

Andersen in Wuzhen, China

“During my law career I was always, on the side, doing a lot of things that hinted towards becoming an entertainer.

I would be the entertainment for all our annual dinners, I would even sing Chinese rock songs.

“A friend of mine was the author of a book on old places in Shanghai, and Getaway asked him to be a guest on the show to talk about it. He was quite introverted, so he suggested me instead.

“I became a regular guest and sometimes a host, using my annual and personal leave, and I did some crazy things.

I went head-to-head with kung fu masters, break-danced with a group of Chinese nannies…

“When I reached the end of the three-year contract with my firm, I joined Getaway full time.”

Spring 2009

17

IF YOU want to live and work overseas, you should first

Education

Small world,

big lessons In today’s global marketplace, infusing tertiary education with an international perspective can boost business, create leaders and may well help prevent war.

senior teaching fellow in the Faculty of Law – took part in an exchange to the University of Bergen, Norway. The experience, she says, “radically changed my life.”

Hunter believes international experience is crucial for students to gain personal and professional maturity.

“Since Australia has no common borders and is a huge island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, we have no real international interaction,” she says. “By travelling overseas for study, students get a sense not only of how big the world is, but also of how interconnected it is.”

Today’s world order is undergoing a paradigm shift from once-separate and autonomous communities to what we now experience as truly interconnected economies, cultures, nations and individuals. What does this mean for the way we relate to one another, study, do business and resolve conflict?

Hunter’s colleague and Bond University’s Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, Professor Raoul Mortley, believes that understanding global connections and “moving away from the narrow confines of the nation state” are important elements of contemporary education.

“Global education is about interconnectedness,” he says. “In a previous generation it was more about imposing perspectives and approaches. Now, it is about receiving messages and looking for difference where there is apparent similarity.”

The bell tolls for thee

18

‘Interconnectedness’ is a word the world’s education thoughtleaders enjoy using today. Doctor Merry Merryfield, for example, Professor of Social Studies and Global Education at Ohio State University’s School of Teaching and Learning, equates an understanding of our interconnectedness with the concept of global education.

In a recent interview with online education resource ‘Outreach World’, Merryfield differentiated between ‘international studies’, which she described as including “the study of countries and world regions, languages, international relations, international exchanges and study abroad,” and ‘global education’, which

“teaches students to see the world through multiple perspectives of diverse people and purposefully addresses stereotypes of The Other.”

But business leader and Bond alumnus David Millhouse finds such distinctions irrelevant to business practice.

“This is jargon,” he insists. “Whether it’s ‘global education’ or ‘international studies’, that’s just academic.”

However, on the importance of getting a global education – regardless of the language used to define it – both academics and entrepreneurs agree: it is crucial.

“In practical terms,” says Millhouse, “which you have to be when you are CEO, interconnectivity or networking or however you choose to define it comes out of an understanding of differences, a respect for them, and a thirst for knowledge that comes out of that.”

Millhouse says this ‘thirst for knowledge’ is critical to building international connections, adding, “international networking is a derivative of an underlying intellectual desire.”

And according to Mortley, a thirst for knowledge is alive and well among Bond’s student body. “We find that students actually know the importance of a global education and seek out disciplines such as international relations or international marketing, which give them a worldwide perspective,” he says.

Human beings have long understood that their ‘interconnectedness’ stretches well beyond their personally experienced community. When Renaissance poet and theologian John Donne penned the words ‘No man is an island’ in his ‘Meditation XVII’, his wonderful expression of global connectivity inspired generations of poets from Ernest Hemmingway to Simon & Garfunkel.

‘All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated...’ Donne insisted, more than 500 years ago.

Therefore, ‘Ask not for whom the bell tolls,’ he challenged the world, ‘it tolls for thee’.

Few today would disagree with this sentiment; in fact, it is truer now than at any time in history. The advents of air travel, the World Wide Web and global broadcast capabilities have brought human beings closer together than we have ever been.

Spring 2009

19

AS A law student at Bond University, Tina Hunter – now a

Education

But how can universities incorporate this thinking into their degree programs, in order to equip students to succeed in today’s interconnected world?

“At Bond, we have adopted an atomistic approach to this question,” says Mortley. “We examine the international content of each subject – subject by subject – so that in the end, the total program is scritinised with a view to its international content and coverage.

“My personal view is that internationalisation is a perspective that should be brought to bear on all subjects and programs, arising out of the awareness of the staff teaching the programs, each in their own specialist area.”

In addition, Hunter says the exchange experience in Norway taught her vital lessons about herself, and “the knowledge and advantages I gained by studying and travelling overseas were crucial on two levels.

“Firstly, I was able to enhance my skills base. This placed me ahead of my peers. But more importantly, I was able to determine what area of law I wanted to specialise in, which helped forge my career.”

Hunter’s fellow alumnus Cameron Andersen also studied law at Bond, and then moved to China to practice in a local Shanghai firm before switching careers to television presenting. He says that gaining David Millhouse an international perspective during his Bond University education was “priceless and practical.”

Many professions today are not restricted to one country and, instead, offer worldwide opportunities. By putting an international spin on its subjects, Andersen says Bond “gives people an understanding early on in their education that going international is something they could do if they have the right skills and personality for it.”

As a student, Mortley travelled to France for his postgraduate studies. There, for the first time, he encountered the ‘continental divide’ between the culture in France and his own AngloAmerican tradition, and “my monocultural presuppositions were shattered.”

Consequently, Mortley has always tried to make his teaching cross-cultural, investigating Asian traditions of philosophy as well as Western traditions.

“I have also taught history over the years, and this is a discipline in which cross-cultural comparisons can be extremely enlightening, by way of either providing contrast or familiarisation.”

company, MillhouseIAG, an international financial services business that transforms emerging growth companies into international corporations.

“It’s the reason we’ve been able to survive and grow,” he says. “We are pretty much the only private equity fund manager in Australia that does both domestic and international investing. That’s very rare in this country.

“Typically you’re mandated to do either domestic or international investments, but we think that in the private equity space, that’s utter nonsense. You can’t do successful private equity investing in a nation that only has 20 million consumers: you’ve got to look where your end-use products are going to be sold and used.”

Millhouse believes global understanding and respect are so important to the success of his company that he builds international education on the liberal arts into the company’s employee training program.

“If you’re doing business internationally, you cannot possibly do it successfully if you don’t have an understanding of the other country’s culture, history, politics, language, art and so on,” he says.

If you’re doing business internationally, you cannot possibly do it successfully if you don’t have an understanding of the other country’s culture, history, politics, language and art

Underpinning business success

20

However, it’s not only the individual students who benefit from global education in today’s universities. Many business leaders rely on this understanding in their employees for their success.

In fact, Millhouse says a thorough understanding of the ‘interconnected world’ underpins the entire success of his own

The true mark of great leaders

As the ‘globalisation trend’ continues and our world narrows, an understanding of our global interconnectedness – and its implications – is likely to become one of the truest marks of the world’s great leaders.

“No business or political leader can survive in a monoculture,” insists Mortley. “Vast changes in immigration patterns mean that even within your own country you are dealing with different languages and cultures. Even if a business does not have international branches, it will still be dealing with different cultures within the borders of its own country.

“In addition, the globalisation of trade, ranging from the management of intellectual property to the trading of commodities or manufactured products, is really one of the major themes of world development in our era.”

Millhouse agrees. “There’s far more to being a business leader than some mechanistic skill set,” he says. “Certainly something we practice long and loud at MillhouseIAG is to widen the experience of our own staff so that they can understand all of these other issues. At the end of the day, that’s what makes or breaks a business.”

For example, employees at MillhouseIAG are required to research and deliver seminars outside of their normal job role.

On a revolving basis, employees deliver seminars on ‘a prominent figure in world history’ of their choice.

They distil the lessons of what made that person who he or she was: what made them successful in what they did, and what lessons they can learn to contribute to a relevant strategy for the business.

Says Millhouse, “The first consequence of this is that people start to read more broadly, and they start to understand that all

six billion people in the world are different.” Moreover, “a respect and understanding of difference is a starting point in building a team. And without the team, you can’t build the business.”

Escaping the degree factory

euthanasia, abortion, pornography and native title; and finally, students gain overall skills in either strategic management or entrepreneurship.

Andersen is grateful for this approach. Technical job skills are not enough, he argues. To be successful, professionals need a broader cultural and artistic knowledge, particularly when it comes to living and working overseas.

“If you’re not at one with the local lifestyle, whether you’re in America, Africa, China or Antarctica, you’re not going to be able to do your job well,” he says.

“When you come back from working overseas, you are automatically dubbed as an expert on that country. Not as an expert in the industry, but an expert on the country from the industry perspective. You have to be a person who knows not just the job aspect of it, but the entire culture that you’re immersing yourself in.”

Andersen believes his Bond University education helped him develop the tools to be open to other cultures. Bond, he says, “doesn’t necessarily feel like you’re in Australia all the time.

“You’re in Australia, but there are Americans in your class, and Chinese, and Indians, and Europeans… People with strong accents. And you get an advanced look at what it’s like to live overseas, and a better understanding of other cultures.”

But possibly the most important implication of the globalisation of our marketplace – and consequently the globalisation of our education – is that the trend may well prevent war, according to Mortley.

“The recurrence of war is one of the most perplexing issues in the history of the human race,” he says. “For this reason, it is an important human duty to participate in the worldwide marketplace.” Let the lessons begin.

By travelling overseas for study, students get a sense not only of how big the world is, but also of how interconnected it is

“One of the great tragedies of the modern education system is that it has become a degree factory for accountants and lawyers and doctors,” Millhouse continues.

“As an employer, I’ve seen many times when people have got sometimes several university degrees in technical disciplines but they can’t do anything.

You really have to unblock the blockages created by school Tina Hunter and university.

“I think all university courses should have a liberal arts and a science component, and probably also a political economy component, because without that, you cannot apply the technical knowledge that you acquire.

“One of the distinguishing features of Bond is that it actually does that. It mandates it for both undergraduate and graduate levels.”

All undergraduate students at Bond University are required to complete four core subjects early on in their degree. These include communication skills, with a choice of subjects in written or spoken communication; information technology (IT), covering either concepts and theories of IT or the related business applications; ethics, with a focus on either fundamental ethical questions in the Western tradition, or some of the political and legal controversies surrounding ethical law, such as

Global Bondies

Bond University is committed to providing a truly global education, infusing each of its courses with both Australian character and international perspective.

Bond actively promotes an understanding of and respect for international cultures, as well as a recognition of the impact this has on business, finance, the environment and communities.

Almost half of Bond’s student body is international, and these students together represent more than 80 countries.

In addition, students have the opportunity to further their ‘global education’ with a number of international exchange and work experience activities:

• • • • • •

Work experience Exchange opportunities Travel scholarships University partnerships Adjuncts Visiting professors

Spring 2009

21

A ‘priceless and practical’ education

Alumni

in the big apple

The Arch went along to two recent Bond alumni events in New York and joined in a chat about the value of alumni networks and what it means to be a Bondy.

ARCH: Why did you come along to the alumni event tonight?

JAMES: I have wonderful memories from Bond, I love that place like nothing else. It was without question one of the happiest times of my life. I’ll take any excuse to get back to that!

LOCKY: I thought it would be good to catch up with other alumni, make some new friends, and run into people I’ve lost touch with. This was my first event, but I plan to go to more, both in New York and at other places around the globe.

ARCH: What stands out about the Bond family?

JAMES: There was an unbelievable university spirit, whether it was the staff encouraging you or your colleagues. Whatever you wanted to do, they were like, “You go for that!”

LOCKY: Being a Bondy is being part of a wider community.

You’re not just a university alumnus. Bond is a place where students, professors and support staff all know each other on a first-name basis. I can still remember a time when I was wandering across campus and I was stopped by Registrar Alan Finch and introduced to a new staff member as “one of our more colourful students.”

VICTORIA: Absolutely. Bond is a small school, so we’re a tight-knit community. With Bondies, you can chat about the Gold Coast, and that’s not something that the average New Yorker is too familiar with. It doesn’t matter whether or not we were in the same year. Bondies all get along.

It doesn’t matter whether or not we were in the same year.

Bondies all get along

ARCH: What purposes do alumni networks serve?

JON: Alumni networks help bring people closer together. I wouldn’t have caught up with some of the people that I have without the alumni networks.

Victoria Cumings VICTORIA: The alumni networks are great for when you go to a new city: you can have some contacts and have some fun with people who have shared experiences with you. I always have fun with Bondies.

ARCH: Do you plan on meeting up with Bondies again?

VICTORIA: I went to a few events in London, including one with Professor Jim Corkery to watch James Smith’s show over there. I’d love to go to more events here.

KIRSTEN: I’ve just moved from Dafur and there are no alumni events there – yet – so this was my first. For me, alumni meetings are more about getting together and hearing each other’s news than networking.

22

Bondies in New York, clockwise from left: Kirsten Hagon, Ben Shepherd, Shawn Ralph, Kristine Benefield, Victoria Cumings, Byron Rooney, James Smith, Tanya Dmitronow

ARCH: What is it about the Bond experience that ties you all together?

BEN: It’s hard to say. I think for the people who started fairly early, there’s a sense of having battled a lot to get to where they are today. Otherwise, it’s the usual: shared experiences, happy memories, beer.

KIRSTEN: I agree. Good memories, shared experiences – JAMES: Tanya, who was here earlier, always describes Bond as something special, the experience of going there.

VICTORIA: Hopefully we can get more organised and have dinner every few months. Tanya is saying she’ll have us over to her home!

The Bondies Jonathan Bier

Alumni year: 2003 Studied: Juris Doctor (Law)

Locky Brennan

Alumni year: 2001 Studied: Bachelor of Applied Psychology; MA International Relations

Victoria Cumings Alumni year: 1993 Studied: Law (LLB)

Kirsten Hagon Alumni year: 1996 Studied: Law

Ben Shepherd

Alumni year: 1993 Studied: BA (Japanese) & Law (LLB)

James Smith Alumni year: 1994 Studied: Law (LLB)

Spring 2009

23

Bondies

ARCH: What are you doing in New York?

BEN: I moved here for my family, and work as an independent trade economist and international development consultant.

JON: I’m in public relations and communications for an international company called SweenyVesty.

KIRSTEN: I work for Oxfam International as a humanitarian policy advisor, so I engage with UN security council and key New York-based UN agencies.

Alumni

big city

NEW YORK-BASED comedian and Bond alumnus James

Smith is in a good mood. In fact, “absolute elation and euphoria” is how he describes his feelings.

Inside the Comedy Cellar, a well-known standup venue in Greenwich Village, New York, about 10 of Smith’s fellow Bondies are waiting for him to take the stage. Outside, Smith has just posed for the camera with none other than the funniest of funny-men Jerry Seinfeld, who performed at the same venue earlier that night.

“Nothing makes me happier than to work with these guys at the pinnacle of their careers, and ask them questions. I am notorious for asking questions,” he says.

“Because these are the things I dreamed of. I vividly remember walking to work as a lawyer with Jerry Seinfeld on my discman, this was pre-iPod, listening to him and figuring out how standup comedy worked. And now here we are. It’s surreal, absolutely surreal.”

24

Funny-men: James Smith and Jerry Seinfeld

Smith studied law at Bond University and after he graduated, tried his hand as a banking and finance attorney, a litigation attorney and even did a little bit of intellectual property and entertainment law, before throwing in the paperwork for the bright lights of the New York comedy circuit.

“After I left university I practiced law and there was no outlet for creativity or performing or anything like that. I really missed it. I remember one day being out at Fox Studios in Sydney and I was doing a contract for a film. And I remember thinking, ‘I don’t want to be doing the contracts, I’d rather be in the film.’

That was a bit of an ‘aha’ moment.”

But, “the real answer is that the lawyer was always the performer,” he insists. He just got a little bit sidetracked.

“I sat in my office one day and I thought well, if I was able to do anything in life, what’s the one thing I could do that would be so enjoyable I’d do it for free? And I came to the conclusion that it was public speaking. And then I thought, well, how do

The thing about Bond… was that there was such a phenomenal support system. And so much opportunity

Need a break?

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To enter, simply send us your current contact details*.

Email your name, address, email address, home phone number and mobile or cell number direct to alumni@ bond.edu.au, or visit our website www.bond.edu.au/ alumni-giving/alumni.

But wait, there’s more!

One Bondy (alumni only) can also win a deluxe wine pack including three-dozen bottles of fine wine, a rack to store them on and a Pictorial Wine Atlas, worth $1200 in total.

To enter, post a photograph of yourself on the Alumni Portal (www.alumni.bond.edu.au > My Profile) so your fellow Bondies can see you today.

Full terms and conditions are published on the alumni portal at www.alumni.bond.edu.au. *Bond University is keen to stay in touch with you and will only use your contact details for Alumni Program purposes, such as subscribing you to The Arch, inviting you to alumni events, and informing you of Bond activities. We will protect your privacy and will never sell your details to a third party.

Spring 2009

25

Bright lights,

you make money out of that? And I realised a lot of TV hosts and personalities had backgrounds in public speaking. At the same time, I noticed a number of lawyers had done what I was considering: Steve Vizard was a laywer, and James O’Loughlin, as were a number of members of the Australian ‘Working Dog’ production company which is responsible for movies like The Castle and The Dish, and popular TV shows like The Panel.”

But even during his law studies, Smith says he always knew he would be doing public speaking in some capacity.

“When I went to law school at Bond, I started getting very involved in debating and public speaking. So Bond is fundamental to what I’m doing now.

“While at Bond, I was selected for three Australasian debating tournaments and two World Debating Championships, at Princeton in the US and in Cork, Ireland. If I was at a university with 40,000 other kids, I just don’t know that I would have received that opportunity.

“The thing about Bond that everyone around me always identified as significant was that there was such a phenomenal support system. And so much opportunity. I could do the comedy debating, I could host the residents’ dinner, I could host the Law Ball.”

When Smith and his fellow debaters were selected to participate in a world championship tournament, it was the broader Bond community that made it possible, he says. “We were trying to raise funds and the Chancellor at the time, Harry Messel, personally gave us $1000, and persuaded other senior business leaders to do the same. Two great benefactors at Bond, Dr John Kearney and the late Brian Ray, also helped us out. The belief that the members of the university community had in us was phenomenal.”

In fact, Smith believes that his years at Bond, which he describes as “the absolute greatest time of my life,” are behind his current choice of career.

“When I sat in that office as a lawyer and thought about the one thing that would make me happy, I wanted to get back to the exciting life I’d had at Bond. I thought, how can I get back to that?”

Today, Smith’s life is nothing if not exciting. At the Comedy Cellar, where he met with the Bondies on this night, he has performed beside Robin Williams, Chris Rock and Jerry Seinfeld. He’s toured with Arj Barker and John Mayer. He’s performed at the famous Montreal Comedy Central, and was a member of the line-up in the first standup comedy festival the Middle East has ever seen, in Amman, Jordan, late last year.

Now, he is preparing for his first full-length TV special.

And at home in New York, a city he describes as ‘Disneyland for adults’ (“the rides are always open, it’s on 24-7 and you can eat as much junk food as you like”), Smith performs at up to half a dozen comedy venues a night.

“I find Bond to be very similar to New York,” he says, “in that there was always an opportunity for me to do something fun.

Bond was one of the greatest times of my life. Thanks to Bond, I’ve been able to create that once again in New York.”

Alumni

News Alumnus: Graeme Bliss

Job: Finance Manager, Laing O’Rourke Location: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Bondies are scattered across more than 100 different countries and get together at local chapters in more than 20 nations worldwide. How do they remember their time at Bond?

Alumnus: Savina Creugnet Job: Hotel project development Location: Noumea, New Caledonia

Alumnus: Nicole Phillips Job: Vice President & Legal Counsel, Al Salam Bank Location: Muharraq, Bahrain

I live in the Middle East, and there is a huge cultural adjustment to make when you move from Gold Coast to this part of the world!

Although Bahrain is quite relaxed and liberal compared with its next-door neighbour Saudi Arabia, you have a much easier time fitting in if you keep the bikini and short shorts for the private beach club.

Studying at Bond exposed me to other people from a variety of countries and cultures, so it certainly helped to develop the ‘soft skills’ that I find so useful working in another country.

If there are any alumni in this neck of the woods they are in Dubai, which is not convenient to visit when you have a two-year-old. I do stay in contact with some of my law school buddies by email and Facebook.

Alumnus: Alain Ruthenberg

My experience at Bond transformed me. It was such a mind opener that I would say pretty much everything I did at Bond helped me get to where I am today.

Bond taught me how to work in multicultural groups, how to research, how to develop a critical mindset, how to help others… and how to accept help! I met my mentor there. In my personal life, Bond enabled me to discover the Australian way of life that I love: spirituality, friendliness and at the same time such hard workers.

I have also been struck by how Australians are environmentally friendly and take care of the environment they live in. Bond’s School of Sustainable Development is helping our hotel project.

I keep in touch with Bondies all over the world. After I moved back to New Caledonia I missed this international mix of friends, so with a couple of other Bondies we are building an alumni network in New Caledonia.

Now, my friends and I are in ‘baby time’ and we joke about how our own kids will do at Bond and the parties they’ll attend around their studies.

Alumnus: Michael Bosse

Job: Co-founder & Program Manager, Equal Access Location: San Francisco, USA

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Bond’s tri-semester year enabled me to travel extensively before and after university.

The programs were rigorous, and gave me the chance to focus more broadly than I think I’d have had at other universities.

Today, the non-government organisation (NGO) I co-founded has more than 150 staff members, operations in eight countries across Asia and Africa, and reaches a weekly television and radio audience of more than 14 million people.

This year I had to give training to Cambodian government officials on communication and negotiation: even almost 15 years later, I was able to draw on the Alternative Dispute Resolution training I received at Bond.

The biggest difference between life here and life in Queensland is the ocean temperature. When the snow-melt comes downstream to the San Francisco Bay in February and March, I get quite homesick for the Gold Coast beaches!

Job: Managing Director, Australia GO Location: Gold Coast & Brazil

Totally 110 percent guilty as charged, Bond is responsible for my happiness today.

I studied financial investment but now I am in ‘educational investment’: every year, we bring around 1000 international students to Australia. We are a registered agent for Bond University, so I’m still very involved with Bond.

I’m friends with many other Bondies from Argentina, Denmark, Brazil, Indonesia and India… It’s so easy to stay in touch using email, Skype, MSN and Facebook.

Vice-Chancellor Robert Stable has been of great support to my business, and is one of the most incredible leaders Bond has ever had. Some of my Bond friends also work with me in my business. The ties made while studying, playing sports and spending time together created a trust that is only real in a close family.

Alumnus: Vrinda Beriwal Job: Executive Producer, Star Jalsha Mega TV series Location: Kolkata, India

Bond was a turning point in my life. Coming from a conservative Indian society, I got to see a new face of life and people. Bond gave me the confidence, independence and courage to fight for what I wanted. Bond also gave me the education I had desired since my childhood, an education that in India just wasn’t possible for a girl. In my work, Bond helped me gain the professionalism and ability to work under pressure. Bond is the best part of my life.

I’m in touch with my Bond friends from all over the world, and we do meet up.

When I travel to another country, I contact my friends there.

The friends I made at Bond have become pals for life because we share the same interests, the same experiences, and literally lived with each other for two years.

Spring 2009

27

Think back

There are a lot of differences between Riyadh and the Gold Coast: here there are no bars, no nightclubs, women can’t drive, alcohol is banned, and my wife has to wear a black cloak when she leaves the compound.

But we also have our fun. There is good social life inside the compound, and hundreds of people attend the monthly Australian Embassy functions.

In my last semester at Bond I got a dreaded ‘pass’ when I should have done better.

Why? My colleagues marked me down and I had to accept the fact that they were right: I hadn’t pulled my weight. That was a valuable lesson for the future, about teamwork and success in the work environment.

The teamwork and entrepreneurial spirit that Bond was founded on is still alive today, and it has carried the University through to all its successes.

Conversation

How to

spend an

inheritance Bond benefactor Neil Balnaves gives generously to support Australian youth, but he says you must never make your own kids too rich.

a philanthropist and a father. Not necessarily in that order.

A serious accident in 2002 gave him pause to go through what he called a life-rethink. The result? He retired from his 40-year media and entertainment career, sold the company, and used his new ‘financial advantage’ to start the Balnaves Foundation in 2006.

The Foundation now disperses more than $2 million a year to support young Australians through education, medicine and the arts. It gave Bond University the funds to build its overwhelmingly-popular new Balnaves Multimedia Learning Centre, a resource so cutting-edge in its use of technology and space that it surprised even Balnaves himself when he first saw it.

ARCH: What motivated you to start the Balnaves Foundation?

I was lucky enough in business to come across mentors who helped me in my own career, but were also very philanthropically oriented. It was a bit of a natural rub-off, I learned about philanthropy by association.

I was also always a bit of a believer in the concept that you don’t make your kids too rich. Because it is not their money, there is a risk that their initiative and self esteem will suffer. It puts enormous pressure on them. So my wife and I felt there was not a lot of sense in making our kids the beneficiaries of everything we had.

We made a conscious decision that while we would maintain the family, look after them, and have funds for if anything went wrong, we would not to make them too rich. And the kids wanted it that way too.

ARCH: With all three of your children serving as trustees of the Foundation, would you call it a family initiative?

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Well to put it in a tongue-in-cheek way, my thinking was I was spending the kids’ inheritance so I supposed they’d better have a say in it. That’s a little glib but the reality was it was their inheritance, and they’d agreed to put it into the Foundation.

Traditionally, children inherit what you make. Our view was since our children wouldn’t, they should be trustees in the Foundation so they could have a view about how it was spent.

And really, the bigger issue is that by doing this, you’re teaching a younger generation of Australians what philanthropy is, by hands-on management. As trustees, they actively handle grants, and just recently my son stepped up to become the General Manager of the Foundation.

ARCH: The Balnaves Foundation made Bond’s new Multimedia Learning Centre possible. Tell us a little about that.

It’s an interesting thing. We discussed it quite a bit, but I had no concept of how cutting edge it was going to be until the day I walked in to see it.

We’d all talked about how it was going to be, but what was really stunning, what knocked my socks off, was when I walked in there. I said, ‘This is even better than I could have expected!’

That was a real buzz for me. The execution, the idea of consulting alumni, staff and students so it was something that they were all personally involved in, I think that made the Multimedia Learning Centre not an expression of outside individuals, but the University’s own creation.

I suppose the next step in this theme is Bond’s University Library that is being redeveloped now. In a sense, it will take a leaf out of the book of the Multimedia Learning Centre by including a heavy presence of electronic resources. Then in a few years we’ll re-look at the Multimedia Learning Centre and it’ll be game on again.

ARCH: Why is education, alongside medicine and arts, such a major priority of the Balnaves Foundation?

Education is somewhere in the middle between medicine and the arts, it crosses both areas.

You support a university’s medical school, that’s really education with a medical twist. We do a lot of things with art galleries and getting young people involved with art. Is that education? Yes, I think it is.

Neil and Diane Balnaves

My concern is that Australia can become more marginalised because it does not have a healthy, vibrant education sector supported by philanthropy. Australia needs to have a view that the next generations coming through should be better trained in whatever they’re going to do.

We’ll never lead in economic terms, we’ll never be a leading military power. But we can be, intellectually, a very, very clever race of people.

This has a lot to do with making sure that the next generation is, without fear or favour and right across the board of economic situations, receiving its education evenly. At a standard that is as good as it can be made.

In America you have a brilliant standard of university, but accessibility to a lot of American universities is extremely difficult. In Australia we have a much more open system.

And if we’re going to have the best universities, we’re going to have to start providing for what we might not be able to access under the government schemes.

Consulting alumni, staff and students… made the Multimedia Learning Centre not an expression of outside individuals, but the University’s own creation

ARCH: You’ve served on Bond’s Council, made the Multimedia Learning Centre possible, and most recently donated two Robert Klippel sculptures to the University. What is it about Bond University that inspires your support?

There’s no two ways about it: you don’t sit on the Council and not have a passionate view about Bond University, and I was extremely passionate about it.

I’m inspired by the fact that Bond University is private so it has to work harder to get its funding. I’m inspired that it’s not bogged down by a whole lot of top-heavy infrastructure, it’s a lean, mean place. And I’m inspired that its academics stuck with Bond through thick and thin: I have an absolute admiration for them.

I’ve had a chance to look closely at a lot of other universities around the world. I look at Bond and I see that it is a standalone, very special case.

What we must never do is break that mould.

Spring 2009

29

NEIL BALNAVES is a successful business leader,

News

Yes, (young)

News

Invest in a sustainable future

Prime Minister Two young leaders, 2009 Young Queenslander of the Year and Queensland Premier in the Indigenous Youth Parliament, share something else in common: they are both Bondies.

TAKE A good look at these faces. One of them may be your future Prime Minister.

Ricky Macourt

Chiu-Hing Chan

At the inaugural Indigenous Youth Parliament during this year’s National Reconciliation Week, Macourt was one of 40 young people to take part in the program, which was designed to foster management and leadership skills.

Since joining Bond last year as the recipient of a Sunland Foundation Scholarship, the 18-year-old Macourt has achieved a First Class award for public speaking, lobbies extensively for a permanent Indigenous Youth Advisory Committee in parliament, coordinates the Indigenous Youth Leadership program, is an Ambassador of the St Joseph’s Indigenous Fund and a teacher’s aide at Varsity College, working with disabled children.

He says he hopes his involvement in the Indigenous Youth Parliament and other community forums will inspire more Indigenous youth and encourage other Australians to “close the gap on the many issues troubling young people today.”

Not one to limit his ambitions, Macourt intends to become Australia’s first Indigenous Prime Minister.

At only 25 years old, Chan has racked up an impressive suite of achievements. He is a Chinese community spokesperson, and acts in a number of influential roles including Chair of the Cultural Advisory Committee for the Fortitude Valley Chamber of Commerce, and is the youngest appointed President and Chair of the Queensland Chinese Forum and the Queensland Police Chinese Community Crime Prevention and Consultative Committee.

In addition, Chan was an Executive of the Beijing Olympic Committee for the Queensland Olympic Council; and is Executive of the Gold Coast Committee of the Australian Institute of Company Directors; Vice Chairman of the Visa 457 Joint Task Force committee; the incoming Ambassador for White Ribbon Australia and incoming Board Executive for the Australian Sugar Industry Museum.

30

Ricky Macourt, Queensland Premier in the 2009 Indigenous Youth Parliament

studied a double Bachelor of Laws and International Relations as well as a Master of Journalism at Bond University.

Chiu-Hing Chan, 2009 Young Queenslander of the Year

Bond’s sustainable development building is both a place for learning and a lesson in itself.

Now, it is globally recognised as the world’s best in carbon-friendly and sustainable design.

THE WORLD’S population has not stopped growing since

the days of the Black Death in the 15th Century, and the planet is now filled with close to 6.8 billion souls. More than 50 percent of us live in cities, and that number is likely to rise to 70 percent in the next 30 years.

Such intense population growth generates serious challenges for our future. Quality water is likely to become a problem, as will our very food supply as cities encroach on farmland.

It is these issues that make it so important that the world’s future architects, urban planners and developers learn how to factor ‘triple bottom line’ sustainability (that is, economic, environmental and social sustainability) into all aspects of their professional activities.

Triple bottom line thinking was behind Bond’s decision to open the Mirvac School of Sustainable Development three years ago, and it was once again brought to bear in the School’s awardwinning building.

Only a year old, the building is already attracting national and international accolades.

It holds six-star Green Star accreditation and is the first education building in Australia to achieve such a distinction. It won the coveted ‘Sustainability in the Built Environment’ award at the recent 2009 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Sustainable Industries Awards, an event designed to showcase Queensland’s best and most innovative sustainability practices.

And in October, it was recognised as the world’s best in carbonfriendly and sustainable design at the prestigious Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) sustainability awards. The London-based RICS is a world-leading authority on property construction and

quantity surveying, and just being nominated for - let alone winning - the award was a win in itself.

“Finalists are published worldwide, so even if we hadn’t won, what we’re doing at Bond in property, construction, architecture and planning would still have been seen,” Earl says.

“Awards like these are important because they demonstrate that sustainability does work.”

The building’s success is that it embraces every aspect of triple bottom line thinking. And Earl says this is as much about good design as it is about ecology.

“Although we’re doing great things in terms of alternative water and power – we produce roughly 60 percent of our own power through solar cells and we can effectively be off the grid for water and sewer – the reason we’ve been able to do that is that we’ve actually significantly reduced the demand for them,” he says.

“We’ve designed a building that reduces the actual demand for water, power and sewer by up to 70 percent.”

Meanwhile, the building’s appropriately named Living Laboratory fulfils the social sustainability part of the triple bottom line agenda, offering students and visitors access to technologically sophisticated learning consoles and indooroutdoor social spaces.

Moreover, Earl says the building proves that sustainability works economically.

“One of the biggest drawbacks to sustainability in Australia is that people perceive it to be gimmicky, and think it will cost them money. What this building has shown is that sustainability is a good investment. It has good payback.”

Spring 2009

31

is studying law at Bond University. Earlier this year, he had a taste of what life would be like as Queensland Premier.

AUSTRALIA’S *

HIGHEST RATING UNIVERSITY

Bond University is Australia’s highest rating university after earning the most five-star ratings in the 2010 Good Universities Guide.

Graduate Satisfaction

Graduate Starting Salary

Teaching Quality

Discover the Bond difference at www.bond.edu.au

Staff Qualifications

Staff - Student Ratio

Getting a Job

Positive Graduate Outcomes

*2010 Good Universities Guide