SUMMER | 2010
Defining SUCCESS through business, career & life
London calling
Miraculous science Money & power
Celebs & communists
A long way from home, Will $3 million help the How to switch careers Four Bond journalists Bondies still bond blind see? mid-stream spill the beans
Summer 2010
Contents
CONTACT US
Editorial enquiries:
Features 6 Miraculous science
10 Money & Power
Office of Development Bond University Gold Coast Queensland 4229 Australia Ph: +61 7 5595 4403
16 Understanding autism
18 Media moguls
26 Crime & Fatigue
Opinion & Alumni 14 Bondies out bush 29 Helping Bondies become losers
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To join The Arch mailing list please email development@bond.edu.au
32 Volunteering time 36 London calling 40 Class notes
29 Campus & Bondy Business 4 Campus news 22 The secret to business success 24 Can your career do this?
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Et Cetera
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Vice-Chancellor’s letter
35 Competition
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Vice-Chancellor’s Letter
How do you measure success? encouraging and leading the pursuit of excellence, and our graduates are testament to the success of that philosophy. But the concepts of ‘excellence’ and ‘success’ are neither narrow nor rigid, and Bond graduates demonstrate the full breadth and scope of these ideas in their personal and professional lives. As Greg Vickery makes clear in the article ‘Volunteering Time,’ “working for personal reward throughout one’s life is not for me.” And yet this is the very epitome of success. He has maintained a flourishing law career across four decades, served on the law school advisory boards of all four major Queensland universities (including Bond), and is the National Chairman of the Australian Red Cross. Greg simply measures success on the contribution he can make to society, rather than to his own hip pocket. This should not simplify the success achieved by the many Bondies featured in this issue of The Arch. As the University’s research portfolio continues to grow (research and consultancy income increased by more than 40 per cent from 2007 to 2008, and a further 23 per cent last year), we can now celebrate the new insights our academics are bringing in fields including autism, chronic fatigue syndrome and criminal law.
Likewise, we have introduced a new, regular section of The Arch with this issue, to highlight the success of Bondies in business. In each forthcoming issue, we will feature ‘Bondy Business’ stories that track the journeys of individual Bondies from graduation to entrepreneurial success, and ask them to share the lessons they learned along the way. Through these stories we hope that future generations of Bondies can learn from their colleagues and in turn, make their own mark on the path to success as they define it. In education, as in business, the pursuit of excellence is a long-term goal and only grows with each new achievement. To use Greg Vickery’s words, “It is certainly a full life, but it is also a very happy one, and that is the key.”
Professor Robert Stable Vice-Chancellor and President
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“Bond has long prided itself on
CAMPUS
news
Bondies give bullies the boot
Bond University partnered with local school Varsity College to take a stand against bullying this year and attracted the support of 10,000 people. The initiative was called ‘One Goal, One Community: Moving Beyond Bullying and Empowering for Life.’ The goal was to demonstrate support for the victims of verbal, psychological, cyber, physical and social bullying. More than 2000 students, teachers, parents and community-members gathered on the Varsity Lakes College oval wearing anti-bullying wristbands to demonstrate their support. Over 10,000 people also signed anti-bullying commitment statements, pledging to commit to behaviours that would stamp out bullying. The project was led by a group of passionate Bond students, overseen by Associate Professor of Management, Dr Amy Kenworthy.
Bond to host international recruitment workshop
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In a triumph for Gold Coast Tourism, student recruitment agents from 40 countries will visit Bond University as part of the Australia and New Zealand Agents (ANZA) workshop in April next year. The workshop will be attended by student recruitment agents, and representatives from universities, TAFE colleges, high schools, language schools and vocational providers. Director for Bond College, Rowan Hinton, says bringing the agents to the Gold Coast will be an essential part of growing international student numbers. “It is the agents that ultimately help students make decisions about their study preferences. Hosting this event presents an enormous opportunity for Bond to showcase its first-class campus and facilities,” he says.
Research booms at Bond Since the end of 2009, the number of Bondies studying Higher Degree by Research (HDR) has increased by 50 per cent, and the University has increased its research and consultancy income by 23 per cent. Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Chris Del Mar says Bond’s expanding research portfolio is a sign that the University is moving in the right direction. He says this “pleasing growth” is a combination of several factors: • A huge effort by academics to focus on research • The expansion of the Faculty of Health Sciences & Medicine during the past five years • Increasing internal research funding by the University to encourage academics • A University plan to stimulate cross-disciplinary collaboration • Active Office of Research Services to support researchers in the grant application process. “Finally, a significant increase in the number of HDR students is also driving many academics’ research,” he says. “In 2008 we had 75 HDR students and now we have 158, so the number has more than doubled in the past two years.”
New partnership with ESSEC Bond University has forged a partnership with one of the most prestigious business schools in the world, ESSEC in France, in an exchange and internship program that will benefit students in the School of Hotel, Resort and Tourism Management (HRTM). Through the partnership, postgraduate HRTM students will now have the opportunity to attend a semester in Paris, enrolled in ESSEC’s MBA in Hospitality Management, while students from ESSEC will spend a semester at Bond University. Bond’s Head of HRTM, Professor Elizabeth Roberts, taught at ESSEC as a Visiting Professor while on the Cornell Hotel School Faculty for 16 years. “The ESSEC MBA in Hospitality Management is recognised as the European leader in the postgraduate hotel management sector,” she says. Moreover, “there are tremendous synergies between ESSEC and Bond University with regard to studentcentred learning, commitment to academic excellence and graduate outcomes.”
Campus
Bond University is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Lars McNaughton as the Head of School of Health Sciences. Professor McNaughton is a distinguished and internationally respected academic with more than 30 years of experience. Prior to joining Bond, he was Head of the Department of Sport, Health and Exercise Science at the University of Hull in the United Kingdom. He has gained more than $1 million in research and equipment grants throughout his career, and is renowned for his work in the area of acid-base balance in exercise. “Both the School of Health Sciences and Bond University have excellent reputations,” Professor McNaughton says. “The small class sizes and excellent teaching practices, place Bond at the forefront of education in times when many institutions simply teach to the masses. “I would like to see the School continue to build upon its excellent reputation across all programs and indeed, to expand the program offerings within the School.”
Bond school scoops more green awards Bond University’s Mirvac School of Sustainable Development can add yet another award to its growing collection. This time it has taken out the Szencorp Green Building Award at the United Nations Association of Australia World Environment Day Awards. The School’s Emeritus Professor Tor Hundloe was also recognised at the World Environment Day event, receiving an award for Outstanding Service to the Environment for his contribution to eco-management and environmental science education. Last year, the School of Sustainable Development building won a range of national and international awards for its innovative and effective design, including: • Australian Institute of Architects State Award for Sustainable Architecture • Gold Coast City Council Urban Design Awards: Award for Excellence in Urban Design; People’s Choice Award; and Sue Robbins Award for Excellence in Urban Design • Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors Global Award for Sustainability • Sustainable Industries Award for Sustainability in the Built Environment.
New appointment to Quality, Teaching & Learning Professor Richard Hays, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences & Medicine, has been appointed to the portfolio of Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Quality, Teaching & Learning). Professor Hays’ professional and academic credentials will ensure that Bond University continues to offer a high-quality teaching and learning environment. The University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Robert Stable, welcomed Professor Hays to the role and acknowledged the outstanding contribution that Professor Raoul Mortley had previously made to the portfolio. Professor Mortley will continue in his role as Dean of the Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences, and will also take on the role of Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Special Projects.
Bond business champions take on world’s best Five talented Bondies from the Faculty of Business took on 64 teams from across Australia to win the National Final in the Global Management Challenge earlier this year. MBA teams work together to conceive an idea for a new business - develop the idea in a written business plan and then present the plan to a panel of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, accountants and lawyers. The best new-venture opportunity is selected and crowned the Global Champion. The team’s national win strengthened Bond’s position as the most successful Australian university in the competition since it began in 2007. Bond has been represented in all three national finals, and contested the international final at Bucharest last year as inaugural national champions. This year’s national champions travelled to Russia in May to compete in the International final and, while they did not progress to the final round, they still relished the opportunity to see some of the world’s best management strategists in action. Congratulations to national champions Samuel Cochrane, Jack Stevens, Pieter Joubert, Chris Taylor and Jevan Hayward.
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New Head of Health Sciences & Medicine
Miraculous science:
the eyes have it It’s as old as religion: “I once was blind but now I see.” With the help of a $3 million grant from the Clem Jones Estate, Bond University is leading the world in exciting new research that could literally make this miracle happen.
Imagine
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what it would be like to be one of the 30 million people today who suffer from macular degeneration. You lose sight at the centre of your visual field. You can no longer do simple things like read, drive or watch television. Worst of all, you can no longer recognise faces, even those of the people you love. Macular degeneration is the biggest cause of legal blindness in the developed world. Vision loss is caused by damage to the retina and in some cases, bleeding. There is no cure. But Bond University’s Professor of Surgery Patrick Warnke and his team are now conducting a five-year study that will use stem cells to rejuvenate the damaged tissue in the eye. If they are successful, the blind will see and the world will change for millions.
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Research
Sounds like science fiction
“We do not want a bionic man, we want rejuvenation,” Professor Warnke says. “Examples of artificial materials would The Bond team will explore two separate paths of research, each be a hip replacement or dentures. Whereas what we look at using using stem cell cultivation techniques and nanotechnology to try is the stem cells of the patient and trying to grow something and repair the eye. completely new.” “It sounds a bit like science fiction,” Professor Warnke admits, Bond is in a unique position to pioneer this research and is although the potential outcomes are very real. “If we can grow already on the way to success. Last year, The Arch featured new tissue in the eye using the patient’s own stem cells, it would Professor Warnke’s earlier work with a team of Australian and be superb, and that’s the journey we are about to embark upon.” European scientists, in which they were the first in the world The goal of the research is to ‘rejuvenate’ the patient’s body, to grow a new mandible for a patient, within the patient’s rather than implant artificial materials. own body. They used the patient’s own stem cells and then transplanted it into the man’s jaw (‘Grow-it-yourself body parts’, V2, pp 6 - 7). “Tissue engineering and regrowing organs to replace ones which do not work is a hot topic and something I have been involved with from the early days of the process,” Professor Warnke says. Growing a new bone was the first step in that process. Now, “it is time to move on and attempt to do it using more complex structures. We have started already, growing the first biological joint replacements.”
Australia: pioneering science
What is macular degeneration?
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In the developed world, macular degeneration is the single biggest cause of blindness. More than 30 million people in the developed world suffer from the condition, and it accounts for up to 32 per cent of all new cases of blindness. That’s half a million cases a year. In Australia, age-related macular degeneration is one of the most common causes of blindness. Patients typically experience a slow degeneration of the macula, with rapid loss of vision that is caused in some cases by bleeding. New drug treatments can shrivel the blood vessels and vitamin supplements can slow down the degenerative form, but the results are less than ideal. There is no cure for ‘dry’ macular degeneration, which accounts for more than 80 per cent of cases. The risk of macular degeneration increases with age, as well as with smoking, hypertension, high cholesterol levels, high fat intake, obesity and exposure to sunlight. Due to these widespread risk factors, the Gold Coast in Queensland faces special challenges with the disease. The Coast is a popular retirement destination, and 34 per cent of the population is aged 50 or more. The region enjoys 300 days of sunlight a year, heightening residents’ exposure to sunlight.
Professor Warnke believes we are on the cusp of an exciting time for tissue engineering in Australia. “We are waiting for the next breakthrough in tissue engineering, especially those where we can translate tissue into humans, and I think in this coming decade we will see some incredible breakthroughs,” he says. “I also think these breakthroughs will be seen in Australia, because the United States lost a lot of scientists and researchers in tissue regeneration when they had the total ban on stem cell techniques.” However, much of the debate centres on embryonic stem cell research, a very different approach to that taken at Bond. Professor Warnke’s research relies only on stem cells taken from the tissue of consenting adult patients. “Australia has a scientific community that is very pioneering, and I have always had a great experience with Australian scientists,” he continues. “Back in the mid 1990s, when I was a medical student and started doing lab-based stem cell research, Australia was the first country that allowed scientists to use growth factors in humans to influence stem cells, which I practiced here as a junior doctor. “There is no reason why Australia cannot be the next country to have a major breakthrough in stem cell research, which I believe is highly likely. That is why I am back here, and why so many other scientists in the field have chosen to come here too.”
Universities generate knowledge At Bond, remaining at the forefront of important new research, is essential to the University’s plans for growth. “We believe research is very important,” says Professor Chris Del Mar, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research). “It is what defines a university and here at Bond University, we can no longer just rest on our laurels of teaching excellence and the wonderful student experience. We need to generate knowledge ourselves and we are achieving that. “Research also gives students the curiosity that may inspire them to take on further study and possibly become researchers themselves.”
Research
During the past decade, pioneering and translational research similar to the Bond study increased 10-fold, Professor Del Mar said, and the next few years at Bond would be even more exciting. This was in no small part due to the Clem Jones Estate grant. Clem Jones, AO, was Brisbane’s longest-serving Lord Mayor and left an extraordinary legacy for southeast Queensland. During the 1960s and 70s, he took Brisbane from being a glorified country town (with many areas still featuring unpaved streets and outhouses) to the cultural and vibrant city that we enjoy today. Jones showed extraordinary generosity and foresight in earmarking funds through his Estate to seek cures for macular degeneration, a condition from which he also personally suffered. Bond’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Robert Stable said the grant from the Clem Jones Estate was “very exciting” for the University. “There was a lot of work by a team of people to get this funding, and I think it is another milestone in the history of our young University. “The concept of this study is enormously exciting and if successful, will improve the lives of many people. It is really exciting to have the work being done here at Bond, working with our local clinicians.”
Worms and lizards The five-year research project will start at the end of 2010, but already the first group of Bond medical students has begun to gain experience in stem cell cultivation. Moreover, Professor Del Mar says tissue engineering is becoming increasingly popular among medical researchers. “A lot of people are now choosing to work in regenerative medicine, trying to get the body to repair itself using technology that we have never explored before. We will see more and more of it in the future; we are still in a very new area of medicine. “We have dreamed of being able to use stem cells to replace parts of the body that are not working so well for a long time. We are on the brink of being able to do this with parts of the eye, so it is very exciting. “We know it must be possible. We have all seen worms that are cut in half and grow back; or lizards that lose their tails and grow new ones. This is now where the research is focused.” For Professor Warnke, science-fiction-turned-reality may still be the best way to describe his research. “It is like working towards being the first man on the moon, being at the forefront of something huge.”
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Image courtesy of ELMARCO producer of NANOSPIDER technology.
Money & power
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A change of career is a refreshing opportunity. It offers a chance to learn new skills, kick new goals and to realign your professional life with your personal dreams.
Research atCareer Bond
In this issue
, The Arch explores how to minimise the risks and maximise the returns of making a mid-career change. Howard Hughes was the quintessential career-changer. Hollywood actor, aviator, engineer, entrepreneur, philanthropist and even CIA spy, Hughes understood the personal and financial benefits of shifting his career to suit his personal interests – or the interests of the market – and experienced great success as a result. Hughes was also, somewhat by accident, the man who inspired the term ‘golden parachute’. In 1960, creditors sought to remove Hughes from control of Trans World Airlines (TWA). They provided Charles C. Tillinghast Jr. with an employment contract that offered him protection against the almost definite job-loss he would have faced if Hughes had successfully maintained control. The contract was dubbed a ‘golden parachute’ and has been in use ever since. A golden parachute guarantees that an employee (usually a senior executive) will receive significant financial and sometimes other benefits if their employment is terminated. A decade later, in 1970, the concept of the golden parachute inspired author Richard Nelson Bolles to write What Color is Your Parachute, a job-hunting and career-changing guide that has been rewritten and republished every year for the past four decades. Intended for those of us who want to change career but don’t have the benefit of a golden parachute to ease the leap, What Color is Your Parachute, is a powerful indication that the concept of ‘one career for life’ is long gone. More than 10 million copies have been sold worldwide, and the book is translated into 14 different languages.
Are you the type to change careers? Resoundingly, the answer will likely be yes. Research shows that the average person will change careers up to five times during their working life. “I think the idea of career changes began with the baby boomers,” says Kirsty Mitchell, Bond University’s Career Development General Manager. Mitchell says boomers tend to have just one career change during their working life, “but it is quite a spectacular one. Something like moving from the corporate world to a lower-key, simpler job.” Mitchell says members of Generation X make more career changes, perhaps once every five to 10 years, but the changes are less spectacular. “Now we are seeing members of Generation Y who have finished their degrees and might spend two years working,
then they want more. They want to test things out and try internships, further study or different sides to their industry.”
Why make the change?
“Once upon a time, a job was about earning money to pay the bills. Most people simply accepted their job was something they had to do and that they probably weren’t going to enjoy it very much,” says Leah Gibbs, Director of online job portal, Lifestyle Careers. “Now, people are more demanding. We have so many talented professionals coming to us because they want to use their skills differently, or balance their work and life better, or work from home so they can spend more time with their families. “People have realised they can ask for what they want when it comes to their career, and they can make their jobs work for them.” Gibbs says the days of being a wage-slave are over. Employees want to enjoy their jobs and make it fit with their lives in a way that work never really did before. Likewise, “employers are also becoming more open to flexible work practices to cater for this new breed of worker.” In fact, shifting career can make you even more desirable as an employee. “Employers recognise that people are changing careers, and they see the benefits in surrounding themselves with people who have a diverse range of skills,” Gibbs says. Changing careers gives people a lot of experience, Mitchell agrees, and allows them to make the most of their working life. “People should realise that these days, professionals who change careers are viewed as the norm. In the past, employers were told to throw away a resume if someone appeared to have had a job for less than two years. Now it is quite different, and many employers recognise the value of employing someone with a range of experience in various industries. I think that is a fantastic thing.”
How to make the change “Look at your skill-set,” Mitchell advises, “and even if it is not directly related to the industry you want to enter, there are bound to be skills you have acquired that can translate. Play up what you already have.” Next; research, network, and improve your skill-set.
Research
Research may seem like a redundant case to make, but it is essential to any job hunt, and more so if you intend to change careers or industries. Dick Bolles, on his careers website jobhuntersbible.com, explains that “as the salary level, the required experience and the skill set of the applicant rises, as the responsibility inherent in the prospective job increases, so does the amount of research required to identify the field, the job, and the company you would most like to work for, and the person there who has the power to hire you.” Moreover, “in a world where the Internet is accounting for more and more job hunting activity, this means you must be able to identify your skills, research the fields and industries where your skills can be used, locate the companies in those industries near you and identify the companies you are
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The process of making the switch is often fraught with difficulty. The time it takes to retrain may have financial consequences. Starting in a new industry can lead to a loss of status and authority. And the emotional challenges – most frequently the fear of stepping into the unknown – can place significant stress on the whole family.
interested in working for. Luckily,” he adds, “research is one of those tasks for which the Internet was born.” Bolles provides an excellent resource of lists for online industry-scoping and job-hunting research on jobhuntersbible. com.
Network
Just about every job requires some form of networking, and Mitchell recommends using this to your advantage when you consider changing careers. “Use your professional and social networks to find people who are doing the job you want to do,” she says. “Through social networking you can enhance your life, both professionally and personally. You can ask a person who does the job you would like, how they got into it, and for their tips. People are more than happy to share their knowledge to help out. “This can help you start to understand what skills you need and how you can adapt your existing skill-set to suit the position you are looking for. You can always do this. There will always be something you can turn to your advantage that makes potential employers look twice.”
Up-skill
To gain the additional skills you need to change careers, Gibbs says there is a range of ways to keep your skill-set fresh without needing to start from scratch. “Short courses are a great way to keep your skill-set fresh and show employers that you are an enthusiastic, keen-to-learn person who wants to keep adding to their knowledge,” she says. “You can also even try work experience. Any way you can get your foot in the door, and show how keen you are, is excellent.”
Top five tips for changing career
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1. Make notes of your current skill-set, even if some skills seem irrelevant to where you want to go. 2. Be prepared to take a job at a lesser position than where you are now: you will work your way up, and the rewards will make it worthwhile. 3. Be persistent. You may not get where you want to be straight away, but the more doors you try the more likely one is to open for you. 4. Use your current network of colleagues, Bondies and social contacts as much as you can: you never know when they might hear of an opportunity. 5. Just do it! Changing careers can be daunting but it is also increasingly common as people realise how much is to be gained by doing something they love.
What are the barriers to change? When it comes to making a change in career, the most significant barriers are as old as time and more often than not, one is linked to the other; money and fear.
Money
The decision to change careers can open up wonderful and life-changing opportunities, but it may also lead to a temporary cut in pay. This is a concern, but not a reason to give up hope. Budget for your career change and look to the future. Randi Bussin is a ‘career reinvention and personal brand strategist’, and founding member of Aspire!, a company that provides professional services and counselling for people who want to change careers. She outlines a strategic plan for financing a career change*. 1. Do your research: do your homework and determine how much you can realistically make in the first few years of your reinvention. 2.
Track your expenses: create a budget and track where you are spending your money, and places where you can tighten your belt. Also, “consider that if you are working in a job you are passionate about, you may feel happier and less stressed, which could result in spending less money on things to help you manage your stress (doctor’s visits, massage, facials, prepared meals),” Bussin says.
3.
Build a cash-cushion: aim to put aside a three-to-six month cash cushion, especially if you expect to be earning less.
4.
Determine training expenses: know how much you will need to invest for training and professional development. Ask those in your target field how much they spent on training and where they got it.
5.
Professional association memberships: professional associations are critical to switching to a new field, so be sure to include membership costs of joining one or two, as well as attendance at an industry conference, in order to network.
6.
Take on extra work: finance your career change by taking on some overtime hours or extra work, and use this extra cash as a career reinvention nest-egg.
7.
Technology: are there any hidden technology costs that you should factor into your transition? Will you need a computer, printer or scanner at home?
8. Volunteer: is there a way to position yourself for your reinvention so that you can be hired and start earning more quickly? Try volunteering or interning to gain experience. 9.
Credit: Bussin recommends avoiding making any significant purchases prior to your transition. But if you must spend, try to commit to regular payments, rather than one lump sum. A line of credit, used carefully, will also give you emergency funds.
10.
Monitor your numbers: develop a tracking mechanism for keeping an eye on your goals and financial numbers, knowing exactly what you are spending to reinvest in yourself. As Bussin puts it, “It is hard to ignore the facts when they are in writing.”
Career
*Adapted from Getting Started Financing Your Career Change, Randi Bussin, published on job-hunt.org, 2008.
Fear
Changing your work can impact important factors that influence your self-confidence, including status, power and relationships. However, almost all change requires giving something up and letting something go in order to gain something new. “There is a certain amount of fear that people have when they initially make the decision to change careers, which is understandable, but there are a number of steps you can take to make sure things work in your favour,” Mitchell says. “When you have spent years training for something, and then feel like you want to change, you might believe you aren’t allowed to make that change: that it would be impossible, or that you do not have the skills. “The fact is that you can do it, and it could be the best choice you make for your career. Working in a job that seems stagnant to you now, or has lost its appeal, can make life very difficult.” Consider why you want to change your career. Are you sick and tired of your job, your employer, or your industry? Or is it all three? How much change do you really need to make? Then consider what you have to gain. Is your desire for change reflecting a desire to escape the rat-race, set your own hours, or make more money? Or do you simply want to dust off some of those old childhood career dreams? “Sometimes people want a dramatic change, sometimes they just want a small shift, but almost everyone wants to change at some stage,” Mitchell says. “If you look at life, it is chaotic: there are ups and downs, things happen randomly, and without order or cohesion. People should realise that their career can follow the same path. “There can be an expectation that a career will be linear: we get a job, then get promoted up and up until retirement. But obviously when people are changing careers midway through their working life, that changes. “This can mean leaving a job where you are in a reasonably high position, going to a new place and starting from lower on the ladder. You have to balance your priorities,” Mitchell says. Weigh up the pros and cons, and decide whether temporary loss of power and status – no longer being the boss or the expert, for example – is worth long-term job satisfaction. “I always encourage people to make the leap,” Mitchell continues. “It is hard, but it is harder to work for years in a job where the passion has gone.”
And one last thing
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Have a backup plan. If you have a Plan B, you will feel a lot less anxious during your career change, says career counselor Randi Bussin on job-hunt.org. What will you do if the transition takes longer than planned? How will you begin to generate cash?” Having ready answers to these questions will take a lot of the stress out of your transition. After all, even Howard Hughes did not limit himself to just one career change: he had plans B, C and D ready in the wings and at one point in his career or another, test-drove them all. “I intend to be the greatest golfer in the world, the finest film producer in Hollywood, the greatest pilot in the world, and the richest man in the world,” he is credited with boasting. There is something to be said for ambition.
Angela Vico (left), Ernie Dingo (centre) and Fiona McKinnon (right).
BONDIES out bush 014
In the rush to make it to that corner office in the city, many professionals miss out on the depth of training, experience and community that can be found in the bush. Two Bondies in the School of Medicine have made it their mission to reverse that trend.
Opinion
practitioners, so the more students who aim to work there, the better. These communities are very grateful to receive help and extremely welcoming to students going out there. A lot of Bondies who have been out to these communities say their views about working in rural areas have changed and they are now seriously considering this option. This is exactly what we want. The sense of community in many of these places is fantastic, and the warmth of the welcome is often a bit of a surprise. It is unlike anything you would experience in a metropolitan area.
AngIE Vico
and Fiona McKinnon are both nurses, studying at Bond to become doctors. They are also both passionate about rural health. Vico and McKinnon are executive members of BUSHFIRE, the Bond University Society of Health For Indigenous and Rural Experience. The organisation and 29 similar university-based clubs across the nation, takes groups of medical students into rural communities to experience the unique training opportunities and lifestyles afforded to medical professionals in the Australian outback.
VICO: I grew up in a rural community with a population of around 4,000. People can gain a great deal from going bush. We have done work with high school students in rural areas and heard that one girl is now considering studying medicine, which is fantastic. In my town, if women trained for work it was generally teaching or nursing, and many people in very small communities might not have the confidence to aim beyond that. So it’s great that Bond medical students can influence members of those communities, to widen their own horizons. Rural communities are often in urgent need of healthcare
More about BUSHFIRE This Bond group also attends Indigenous festivals and educates its members about issues related to improving Indigenous health. Members of BUSHFIRE have travelled to Rockhampton, Alice Springs and a range of other rural communities. Students undertake training and learn what would be expected of them in these settings, as well as enjoying some of the more leisurely aspects of country life. “When we went to Rockhampton with around 60 students, after learning about advanced clinical training, we ended the trip with a farmstay,” says Angie. “We cracked whips, milked cows, drank billy tea over an open fire and watched the sun set.” For more information visit: www.gobushfire.org
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McKINNON: Many students are a little fearful of working in rural communities or simply envisage their careers taking place in the city. The idea of BUSHFIRE is to get people out there experiencing rural and remote places, rather than simply writing them off as a place to work. People have no idea what to expect and often think the worst. But when they get out there, they are surprised by how well they are welcomed, the incredible training they can receive, and just how much they enjoy themselves. People who work in rural locations receive a considerable amount of work-experience that they just wouldn’t have access to in an urban environment. Because you might be one of a very small number of medical professionals in a rural area, you will have to be trained in pretty much everything and have a range of specialties instead of just one. This way, you can really widen your skill-set.
uNDERSTANDING
AUTISM Autism and other related disorders can be lonely and disorienting. A child with autism may seem distant, aggressive or obsessive. Often, they are locked inside a world that creates barriers to communication and intimacy that those around them cannot understand. An important new research centre at Bond University will contribute evidence-based research and assistance to help members of the community better understand, and therefore better respond to people with autism.
When Stephen Wiltshire
was a child he had no language and could not relate to other human beings. He lived entirely in his own world and was prone to screaming fits and panic tantrums. Stephen was diagnosed as autistic. At school the only activity Stephen enjoyed was art and he learned to communicate with the world through the language of drawing. He drew animals, London buses and buildings. Stephen drew cityscapes following the effects of an imaginary earthquake, after being shown photographs of earthquakes at school. He also drew classic American cars and most of the major London landmarks. His memory and attention to detail were encyclopaedic. The teachers at his school encouraged him to speak by temporarily taking away his art supplies, thereby forcing him
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Associate Professor Vicki Bitsika
to ask for them. Stephen first responded by making sounds, and eventually uttered his first word, “paper.” He learned to speak fully at the age of nine and gradually his communication improved. He learned to read, write, and overcome many of his behavioural problems. As his drawing flourished, it became clear that Stephen was one of the few gifted individuals with ‘savant syndrome’. His artistic ability was linked with an equally remarkable memory, so impressions were inscribed on his mind from a single exposure.
Autism in Australia A report commissioned by the Australian Advisory Board on Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs), The Prevalence of Autism in Australia, published in 2007, found that one child in every 160 between the ages of six and 12 had an ASD. ASD refers to three diagnoses: Autism, Aspergers Disorder, and Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified, or PDD-NOS. People with an ASD do not respond to the environment in conventional ways. Typically, people with one of these disorders display problems with communication, social interaction and behaviour. Bond University’s Associate Professor Vicki Bitsika has researched and treated autism for more than two decades. She is the Director of Bond’s new Centre for Autism Spectrum Disorder, a service that will conduct research, host public forums and provide assistance to local families that are affected by ASD. “As a group, children with ASDs tend to be highly anxious and resistant to changes in their routines,” she explains. “They may have rituals which they need to perform to impose order on what is a chaotic environment from their perspective. “Even if they are highly verbal, they may have difficulty sending and receiving meaningful communicative messages. They may not give eye contact and may not be able to understand social norms. Many are almost blind to subtle social
ResearchResearch at Bond
The Bond University Centre for Autism Spectrum Disorder
Recognising Autism “When I began working in this field, ASD was largely a hidden disorder, because we were only looking at one end of the spectrum. The only people who were diagnosed were those with moderate or severe symptoms,” Professor Bitsika says. “Higher functioning people would have possibly been seen as a bit eccentric, but would go without a formal diagnosis. Also the criteria being used to diagnose autism were restrictive. For example, a child who had good eye contact or who showed affection was not considered to be autistic. On top of this, not a lot of professionals were trained to identify autism. “We have seen changes on all these fronts, but it is still a hard disorder for people to understand.” Professor Bitsika says understanding the nature of ASD is essential in treating them. “A large proportion of the ASD people I have met who were in real trouble, would not have reached that stage if their specific needs had been catered for, instead of the focus being on treating their symptoms in a superficial manner. “Awareness of how symptoms manifest across the autism spectrum is so important. The more we know, the more we can ensure people with an ASD can lead happy and productive lives. People with ASDs can lead incredibly successful lives with the right treatment and support.”
Research: sight and sound
This project targets sensory processing sensitivities in schoolaged children with an ASD. It examines ways in which auditory and visual stimuli impact on children’s capacities to engage in meaningful learning in the classroom. The project also investigates the proposition that the development of anxiety and associated behavioural problems are due to deficits in sensory processing.
Research: stress on parents
This project explores the stress that parents of one or more children with ASD experience. Preliminary data obtained from a sample of Gold Coast parents suggests that the parents of children with an ASD are more likely to be highly stressed, anxious and depressed than the parents of neuro-typical children, or children with other disabilities.
Research: married to aspergers
This project investigates the experiences of people who are in an intimate relationship with someone who has Aspergers Disorder. “These people take a caregiver role in relation to their partner and learn to minimise their own needs for reciprocal communication and interaction,” Professor Bitsika says. “This can put them at risk of developing psychological difficulties.”
Research: addressing difficult behaviour
This project is designed to develop specialised assessment methods to identify and explain the specific reasons for the behavioural challenges that typically present in people with ASD. A key aim of this research is to develop a package to train both parents and professionals to learn how to address difficult behaviour effectively. Summer 2010
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cues, such as a change in facial expression or voice tone.” Nobody knows for sure what triggers ASDs, but speculations include that they are inherited, that they are caused by environmental elements such as pollutants and toxins, that they are the result of infections, and that they result from brain damage caused at birth. What we do know is that an ASD is extremely tough on both those with the disorder and their family. Very few children with an ASD also benefit from the ‘savant syndrome’ that set Stephen Wiltshire apart and provided him with a passport to social interaction.
Bond’s Centre for Autism Spectrum Disorder is a place for families affected by ASDs to access practical assistance by participating in structured research projects that are designed to increase our understanding of and investigate methods for treating ASDs. Bond undertook extensive community consultation before opening the Centre, to ensure it delivered what the community wanted and needed. “It was clear people wanted this to be a university-based research centre, and to work with key ASD issues as they occurred across the age-span. People wanted a specialised service with individualised treatment because generic approaches had proven to be of limited value,” Professor Bitsika says. “Our aim is to concentrate on research that produces practical outcomes for families and is readily applicable in the community setting. There has been a huge amount of community support for this Centre and we are committed to assisting people with ASD, their carers, their families and their educators to deal with the condition effectively.” The Centre will be the first in Queensland to offer training for a Certificate in ASD Studies, providing professionals with formal qualifications that help them work with ASD individuals in specialised ways. In addition, four major research projects are underway.
Media moguls 018 18
All reporters love telling stories. So we asked four Bondies who are making waves in international media to spill the beans on everything from their thoughts about journalists’ ethics to celebrity behaviour, multimedia and writing for a communist regime.
Feature
“I flew into Beijing at midnight, was picked up by a woman whose English wasn’t great, and whisked through the darkened streets of the city in an Audi with heavily tinted windows.” Bondy Stewart Campbell secured a job at the Chinese Communist Party-owned China Daily newspaper while completing his Journalism Master’s at Bond, and his first day on the job was somewhat unconventional. “I was deposited into an apartment building, handed an envelope full of cash and told this was where I would live. And with that, my tenure at the newspaper began,” he says. Journalism at Bond University has a long and proud history. Most graduates go on to work for media agencies both within Australia and overseas, although not all of them land cloak-anddagger jobs within foreign communist parties.
humanities and could write. Sometimes I still dream about opening my own boutique in a cosy part of Melbourne,” she confesses. But after deciding on journalism, Dutt applied for a place at Bond University and began working toward her new dream. By majoring in foreign correspondence and international relations, Dutt was able to use her education to work in Australia, London and now India.
Nidhi Dutt
Going global
Telling stories Nidhi Dutt, a Bondy who best remembers her time on campus for long nights spent in the computer lab pumping out The Clock magazine, along with some “very interesting” pub crawls, is the Mumbai Correspondent and Presenter of India Business Report for the BBC. Journalism wasn’t always Dutt’s professional goal. Fashion school was her early choice. However, journalism “popped up,” she explains, because, “I always had an interest in the
Rise above your fear of inexperience “Covering the arrest and detention of Dr Mohammad Haneef in Brisbane, on my own, for Reuters / Times Now, was one of my most challenging assignments,” says Bondy Nidhi Dutt. “I’d just landed in Brisbane for a holiday after a long time away. Two days later, the story broke. It was huge for the subcontinent and it was the kind of story I would have killed to be on had I not been there. “It was a situation of the right place and the right time. But when you feel like you’ve still got so much to learn, you just have to dive in and start learning on the job. It has to be one of my most challenging, nerve-wracking assignments, but by far, one of the most rewarding, both professionally and personally. “It made me realise that certain situations and scenarios can make you rise above your fear of inexperience. You don’t have 20 years to get yourself together, focused and filed on time.”
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Certainly ‘global connections’ is a key point of difference to Bond’s journalism degrees, and the University’s international networks help Bondies stand out in the media marketplace. At Bond, journalism subjects are based on research and consultation with industry and presented within an international context. The University’s worldwide alumni network includes Bondies working for major television networks, newspapers and magazines across the globe. Even while on the Gold Coast, students gain an international perspective to their studies as students on campus represent more than 80 different countries. Students can apply to study for a semester at 59 leading universities in 19 countries through Bond’s international exchange program. Likewise students from universities overseas can study journalism subjects at Bond to expand their experience. Bondy Gunnar Larson attended Bond as a recipient of the Gates Scholarship, a program that evolved from Bill Gates’ desire to ‘give back’. “The Gates Scholarship provided me with an open passport to study around the world and tailor my education, something I have always been thankful for,” says Larson, who took the opportunity to study at Bond in order to excel in his chosen field, and used his education to launch an Internet media business. “Bond University is a big deal to a kid from workingclass Idaho.” At just 25 years old, Larson is President and CEO of NetworkGlobal Companies, a group comprising leading media websites and premium lifestyle products. He kick-started his career while still studying at Bond, taking advantage of the many opportunities on offer to students. Before his final semester on the Gold Coast had ended, Larson volunteered to work at the United Nations, producing online video content. Not long after this, he was hired as a consultant.
Sal Morgan
Celebrities behind the scenes
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We can’t ask journalists to tell their behind-thescenes stories without at least a little celebrity gossip. So, Bondies? “Jennifer Aniston looks better in the flesh, while Angelina Jolie is more stunning on screen,” says Sal Morgan. “Sarah Jessica Parker is incredibly appreciative and down to earth and Cameron Diaz is great fun. Meryl Streep makes everyone feel at ease, interviewing her is like sitting down with your grandma and having a cup of tea.” Harrison Ford is Morgan’s least favourite celebrity to interview. “He never wants to be there when it comes to talking to the press.” Stewart Campbell is not a fan of the entertainment industry and his one experience on the red carpet is not one he hopes to repeat. “I propped up a table to wait for the stars to arrive when this big guy came up next to me and kicked off a conversation. I turned my head to respond and was met with Liam Neeson. “We had a chat and eventually he asked me what I was doing there. I explained, and as soon as he heard the world ‘journalist’ his face seemed to contort in brief disgust before he decided more interesting conversation lay elsewhere. I got similar treatment from Ralph Fiennes. In fact, at least Liam Neeson had the decency to tell me he had no interest in talking to me; Fiennes just stuck his hand in my face. “Journalists and actors have a complicated and sometimes quite brutal relationship, which doesn’t really appeal.” But for Dutt, “trudging through the snow with George Soros, one of the biggest names in international finance, right before the global economic crisis, was pretty good!”
“The best stories are the ones told from a people-perspective,” she says. “Those are the stories that give you insight and make you feel what’s going on. That’s not just about pictures or television, but about any type of journalism. “If you’re not interested in spending time in the crowd, listening and watching, journalism isn’t for you.” Covering the controversial story on racially-motivated violence against Indian students in Australia, Dutt got to the story first, exploring the issues behind the crisis well before the Australian media outlets gave it traction. “We got to the heart of that story and the many, many socioeconomic issues tangled up with it well ahead of the pack. When everyone was talking about the issues we’d covered a year or so back, we were looking comprehensively at the wider domestic and regional issues, and that is certainly satisfying. It’s always nice to know that you did it first.” “There are so many stories to tell,” agrees Larson, “from news about compelling world events, to features that help people get more enjoyment out of life. “My childhood dream was to become a broadcaster, because back then, print, radio and television were the only means to reach a wide audience on a local or national level. The success of online video proved that anyone with a camera and a computer could reach a worldwide audience in an instant with unique, engaging content.”
Talking ethics “There has never been a better time for journalists to reclaim the profession, take the ethical high road and speak directly to an intelligent audience on the local, national or world stage,” Larson continues. “We apply the same journalism ethics to our feature reporting as we do to our hard news content. In both cases, people want the truth.” Ethics were top-of-mind for Campbell early in his career, as he faced the unique challenges of working for a government-owned publication. “The worst thing was the endless stream of lead stories about ‘win-win bilateral ties’ and ‘mutually beneficial relations’, as well as periodic outrage at Japan or Taiwan to distract attention from something the Communist Party didn’t want reported,” he recalls. Campbell left Beijing after a year at China Daily, and entered the highly competitive job market in London. “It was intimidating being relatively inexperienced in the big city, but I got a couple of interviews with consumer and business magazines.” Starting as news editor at Motor Boats Monthly, Campbell then worked up to assistant editor and after four years, was made Deputy Editor of Motor Boat & Yachting magazine. “I remember a lot of essays about ethics and media law,” he says of his time at Bond. “As useful as they were, I’m still yet to libel anyone. It was the people in the course that really stood out. They were from all over the world and represented different generations. “We all had differing levels of experience, so it was interesting for us all to be thrown into a single pot. I learned a lot from them.”
Feature
The landscape for journalism, as in many industries, is in constant change. “The important thing now is to be skilled across all media platforms: online, paper and video,” Campbell says. “The demands on the newsroom are as intense now as they’ve ever been. Even on monthly magazines, we have to be instantly reactive through the web, Twitter, or whatever it may be.” As the correspondent in New Delhi, Dutt’s is a multi-media job and she covers everything from news stories to eight minute television features. “I file as and when needed, sometimes every second day, sometimes around the clock for online, radio and television,” she says. “A breaking news story means you’re on it straight away, injecting into a live bulletin by way of a phone interview, or turning around material from the bureau, or rushing out to get an interview. “The life of a correspondent is pretty much all about work and keeping on the job, one story at a time … for the most part!” Yet another Bondy journalist, Morgan, credits her Bond degree with giving her the confidence to work across the mediums of print, radio and television. The Bond Newsroom enables students to gain experience in the broadcast-quality, digitallyequipped television studios. Morgan took this experience and her love of movies, and turned them into an international career as an entertainment reporter. During the past six years she has lived in Los Angeles and worked for most of the television and print outlets in Australia and a few in the United States, including E!, LA Times, MTV, VH1, Reuters, Rolling Stone, InStyle and People Magazine. Today, Morgan is the US correspondent for the Nova Network, the Movie Network (Foxtel) and Who Magazine. “You have to put yourself out there and not be afraid of going after what you really want,” she tells other Bondies who hope to follow in her path. “Prepare yourself for a few knock-backs along the way but remember, a yes for the right job will come your way eventually!”
Stewart Campbell
Gunnar Larson
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Crossing platforms
The secret to business success: combine your passions and love the freedom
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Bondy Karen Ridge experienced a rough patch in life a few years back and lost a lot of confidence. But the 2001 Telstra Business Woman of the Year finalist picked herself up, dusted herself off and launched her latest venture, a business that combines her three passions of food, wine and travel. She says her Bond education taught her never to give up. “I remember failing my first ever exam at Bond and thinking my life was over, but the sun came up the next day, I studied harder and got the job done,” she said. Today, ‘work’ for Ridge is walking the colourful markets of Barcelona or enjoying a five-course lunch, prepared by a private chef in her Loire Valley apartment.
I knew I had to
start my own business because I was a shocking employee. I love the freedom that having my own business gives me. If you can imagine Gourmet Traveller magazine in real life, that is what we do. The articles you read where a reporter has done a cooking week in Tuscany, a weekend of wine in Burgundy, a gourmet adventure in Provence … that’s what we do. Some of my stand-out moments include eating freshly caught, grilled lobster on a deserted beach on an island in the Pacific, degustation dinner in a medieval castle in Champagne, and sipping Cava while enjoying a spread of Spain’s finest jambon in a private cellar in Penedes. My work is a combination of everything I love; food, wine and travel. It’s easy to be excited about what I do and it makes people happy.
A practical education I was one of the first students at Bond – I’m a 1990 Alumnus – and I studied a Bachelor of Communication, majoring in Management and Hospitality. Bond taught me that teamwork and communication are really important in business, as is having a clear vision of what you want to achieve.
Bondy Business
Finding a niche After I graduated from Bond I spent some time overseas, then I landed myself a job in a travel agency that some friends had owned. It became my life and we worked hard to make it a success. We built it up and turned it into a thriving agency, and 10 years on we had one of the biggest travel agencies in the country. At that point we sold the business and I felt like a change, so I moved up to the Gold Coast and opened a marketing consulting business. I ran that business for three years before I became homesick for cold weather and men in suits, and moved back to Melbourne again. I wanted to work in the travel industry again because I had really enjoyed my time at the agency. But I knew the traditional model of retail travel lacked longevity and profitability. I began thinking about how I could achieve these things and combine this with my passion for food and wine. I did some research and I couldn’t believe it when no-one was operating in the niche of food and wine in the travel industry. When I realised the domain name foodandwinetravel.com.au was available, I decided it was destiny.
Start-up challenges It was daunting to start up without a single cent or a single client. I had to build a website: a big challenge, big expense, and a lot of sharks. The website was a very un-fun thing to do. It’s still the number one thing I would warn people about. It was a complete nightmare and I ended up spending four times what I planned. Then there’s search engine optimisation to master and how to turn hits into bookings, maintaining the site and so on. I also had to balance the new business with working another two part-time jobs to support myself as a single woman. So I worked seven days a week for the first 18 months, which was a challenge both physically and mentally. But this was my third business so I knew what I was getting myself into. It was also my second business in travel. I knew all about the hoops I had to jump through to get it off the ground and how many hours would be involved. Lots. A few years earlier I had gone through a bad patch and lost a lot of confidence and money as a result of making some very bad decisions. All those thoughts play on your mind a bit, but you just have to keep your vision strong and get on with it. The challenge has been worth it. Two years after starting Food and Wine Travel, my journey has been amazing. I found myself
thinking after only 12 months, “Wow, look at what I have created!” But if you looked at my business on paper, you might think I was mad. I don’t get caught up in making millions, because it is the journey that really counts. I just do what I do and work towards a vision that keeps getting bigger each day. I am a perfectionist so I am constantly improving things and providing better ways to develop my service.
Bondy Business is a new, regular section of The Arch, featuring Bondies who have forged their own paths in business. We want to hear from you: please email us at alumni@bond.edu.au to share your own Bondy Business story.
Ridge’s business advice for Bondies To any Bondies who are thinking about owning their own business, start with the end in mind: have a vision of what you want your life to look like when your business is running, ‘in a perfect world’. I would even go so far as to say don’t over plan and don’t get stuck in strategy, because you tend to miss opportunities. Trust your instincts. Back yourself. These are the three mottos I apply to my own life and business: • Do what you love and love what you do. Life is much easier and more fun when you get up everyday and you’re excited. • Activity creates activity when it comes to marketing. Just do something! Even if you stuff it up you will learn from it. • Fake it till you make it. Tell everyone things are great and share your vision. They will buy it and so will you. Summer 2010
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What made my Bond education unique, beside the small classes and the attention you get from lecturers who actually know your name, was the hands-on stuff. We actually had to create something: set up companies, or small businesses and marketing projects, complete with strategies and so on. It was about putting all the things we had learned into action. Thinking back to those early days, I would have to say my best memory of Bond is the Organisational Behaviour subject with Andrew Crouch. I really enjoyed that because you actually had to create something. We were in charge of producing an event, so it was a real experience and not just a textbook one. I went on to do a lot of events with work, so it helped.
Can your career do this?
Bondy Andrew Day makes dreams come true
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While fundraising executive Andrew Day was studying for his MBA at Bond in 1991, his brother Matthew was also studying for a Bachelor degree on campus, and the brothers’ father, Dr John Day, served on the University staff. Together, the three Days still remember their time at Bond almost 20 years ago with clarity and fondness. Now Chief Executive of Compton Fundraising in the United Kingdom, Andrew Day is putting the lessons he learned at Bond to work, to manage multimillion dollar campaigns that raise funds for charities and not-for-profit organisations, and still says he is “a huge fan” of Bond.
It was not an easy road
in the early years, but the pioneering can-do spirit that was forged then is clearly still at the heart of the University, and continues to make it a special place. When I was at Bond, there was a sense of it being unfinished, but at the same time, it was an excellent experience for me. In my finance class there were four or five of us working with a Harvard finance professor. That is the kind of experience we wouldn’t have received even if we had gone to Harvard! Bond was also the only university offering an MBA over a 12-month period. Everywhere else offered this over two years or more. From a cost point of view, I only lost one year of income for a much better result.
A profound and enduring lesson I was already working at Compton Fundraising when I started studying at Bond. I’ll admit the original idea was that my MBA would help me find a ‘proper job’ somewhere else. But as I got further into my study at Bond and began doing practical things like marketing plans, using Compton as the model, I realised it was really a great company that just needed a few changes. So I went back after I finished my studies, became the Managing Director in 1994 and in 1995 I organised a
Bondy Business
management buy-out. I continue to use the lessons I learned during my Bond MBA not only in running our consulting business, but also in raising funds for our clients. The lessons I learned at Bond University have shaped my professional life in a profound and enduring way.
The right questions at the right time
Helping people achieve their dreams My absolute favourite part of this job is helping people to achieve their dreams, things they simply didn’t think would be possible. That moment when all the funding is in and they realise things are actually going to happen, is great. People who come to us are often floundering and don’t know how to go about gaining the funds they need. We provide them with steps and an orderly process leading to the revolutionary moment when the money comes through. We just finished a project to put in an education centre at the Globe Theatre, which was rebuilt as Shakespeare would have known it. That was one of my favourite recent projects. It was very difficult but also rewarding. I think I enjoyed that partly because we were around children, but also because it was about our cultural heritage. It was even more challenging in some ways when I helped raise funds for a local community centre in my own village. I love working on things that have a big impact on the people involved, whether they are big or small projects.
Thinking about fundraising? For any Bondy wanting to be involved in the fundraising industry, Day says the process is simple, just ask. “Getting involved as a volunteer is a great way of seeing what the profession does. I’d recommend that if any Bondies are considering becoming professional fundraisers, they list the top five not-for-profit organisations they are most interested in and then contact each of those fundraising departments and volunteer. You just might find it is something that takes over your life. It did mine. “Now is the ideal time for graduates to get involved in the fundraising industry. In the United Kingdom particularly at the moment, because of the economic situation, there are a lot of able young people who have been left languishing, and this is the perfect opportunity to bring them into the profession. “The fact that fundraising is not yet properly recognised and that you can’t really say that you are a fundraiser with any credibility, should be changed. It is similar to the way that accountants were once seen as bookkeepers, and now they are a highlyregarded profession. A generation from now I think we will see fundraising in the same place. “It is a very enjoyable, rewarding job, and I think it just needs a bit more recognition or acknowledgement so that young people can consider it.”
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I always knew consulting was for me, but I really had to get my head around fundraising. In a way, I initially thought it was being a professional beggar, but of course in time I learned that this couldn’t be further from the truth. Today, for example, we’re running a £100 million campaign to raise funds for a new bio-medical campus at the University of Cambridge Hospitals, which is very exciting and challenging in the current economic climate. I help our clients prepare for and then run capital fundraising campaigns. I work with them to find out exactly where the money will come from for their specific project, and determine how best to secure it in the least amount of time possible, usually from a small number of donors. It’s simply a case of asking the right person the right question, at the right time for the right part of the project. Some donors like to see others donate first or they might like to know how much money the institution itself is putting in. So we need to work these things out. There is great satisfaction in coming back to a cathedral or university and seeing the new developments, and feeling like I played a part in them and had a key role in enabling those improvements to happen.
Crime and fatigue
research In two very different fields, criminology and medicine, two Bond scholars are committed to making a lasting and positive difference to society by conducting research that will change the way we think – and act – in the future. Assistant Professor Robyn Lincoln and Associate Professor Sonya Marshall are each on a quest for excellence, passionate about their research and dedicated to their causes. Here, they share their important work with The Arch.
Confronting controversy for juvenile offenders When children and adolescents commit crimes, do they have any greater entitlement to privacy than adults? Or does the community have a right to know the name behind the criminal, whatever their age? Juvenile offenders (people aged 17 and under) are protected from being identified in all states of Australia except the Northern Territory (NT). However, politicians in New South Wales (NSW), Queensland (QLD) and Western Australia (WA) are reconsidering this policy, following a number of high-profile cases involving under-aged criminal activity. Assistant Professor Robyn Lincoln of Bond University, alongside Professor Duncan Chappell of the University of Sydney, recently completed a study into the consequences of ‘naming and shaming’ juvenile offenders. ARCH: What exactly did the study comprise, and why is it so important?
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RL: Nothing like this study has been done before. We wanted to know the extent of naming juveniles in the NT media, how a range of stakeholders perceived the issue, and how it affected the juveniles themselves. The project included a content analysis of NT media, interviews with stakeholders such as politicians, victims’ groups and journalists, and an in-depth look at individual cases. We focused specifically on indigenous youth who were overrepresented when it came to being named in the NT, but this was part of broader research being undertaken.
ARCH: What’s behind the push to start publicly identifying young offenders? RL: One of the reasons given for allowing the courts to name young offenders is that their anonymity seems unfair to their victims. It has also been said that acknowledgement should be part of the punishment, and that the likelihood of being named may act as a deterrent to reoffending. This is an issue that has been raised by politicians in recent years so that they come across as being tough on crime. In NSW, particularly after some high-profile rape cases, offenders were not named, and this caused public debate. It is possible that this is a knee-jerk reaction though, so we want to look at the issues surrounding the naming of juvenile offenders. At the moment, the media can apply to name juvenile offenders in high-profile cases, but this is the exception rather than the rule. ARCH: What did you discover? RL: We found that naming and shaming simply does not have the desired effect. In each of our research methods, we found that naming and shaming was not really effective. Many people felt it was wrong, even some journalists in the NT who had the right to use the names of offenders chose not to, because they felt it was wrong. ABC Radio in the NT has a policy of not using the names of offenders under 18, even though they would be within their rights to do so. All the stakeholders interviewed, including crime groups,
Research
or something else that made the case stand out. ARCH: What are some of the problems in naming young offenders? RL: There are enormous impacts on the siblings and parents of the offender, the offender finds it difficult to get employment, and it impacts on their education. These are things that do not help them lead productive lives. Although we did not gather data on reoffending, what we found from self-reporting and anecdotal material was that the naming of offenders did not seem to deter individuals from committing further crimes. ARCH: This remains a controversial issue. What’s the answer for Australia? RL: We think the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child should be followed, strengthened if anything, rather than diluted, around the protection of young people.
media organisations, journalists, lawyers and victims’ groups, disagreed with the name and shame policy. ARCH: What about the victims?
ARCH: If the media in the NT tend to refrain from naming young offenders, how do the names get out? RL: Many cases are reported briefly, with information coming from the police. It is only the unusual, stand-out cases in which young offenders are named. There was a lot of reporting of juvenile crime, but it was largely anonymous, like reporting a small robbery or a gang of youth at a shopping centre. And we did find that youth crime was over-represented. When youths were named, it tended to be in cases where there was something unusual about the crime, whether it be the manner of the crime, the nature of the victim, or involving a high-profile person. We did find a key number of cases where the offender was named, and it was always when there was horrendous violence,
Robyn Lincoln Assistant Professor Robyn Lincoln has lectured at Bond since 1994, and has a special interest in Aboriginal criminal justice issues and the treatment of marginalised groups in the criminal justice system. She was also senior editor of Aboriginal Studies Press in Canberra for five years, and managing editor of the Journal of Sociology, as well as spending some time as editor of the Australian Journal of Social Issues.
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RL: Even the victims of crime do not seem to think this was effective, although they are often touted as a reason to name and shame. We find victims are not as tough in their stance as we tend to think they are. We often think victims want revenge, but the associations we spoke to said that the only thing achieved by naming offenders, was they would ratchet up the law-and-order option to a higher level. It does not support the victims.
New hope for Chronic Fatigue patients Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) is a devastating condition that leaves its victims unable to do everyday things. It can be coupled with ‘memory fog’ or cognition problems, persistent inflammation of the joints, and a range of other symptoms. Moreover, the condition is notoriously hard to diagnose and treat. Now, a Bond University research team hopes to change this situation. Associate Professor Sonya Marshall, alongside colleagues Professor Mieke van Driel, PhD student Ekua Brenu and researchers from Queensland Health, are one year into a three-year project that will find out if any of a range of six biomarkers may be used to diagnose CFS. If the team is successful, the results could bring faster diagnoses for patients, and provide a foundation for the development of new and effective treatments for people with CFS. ARCH: What’s so important about a fast diagnosis? SM: People with CFS often have to wait a very long time for a diagnosis, as it is currently only available after eliminating all other sources. It is extremely hard to recognise and diagnoses can be a long time coming. The condition is often misunderstood among the general community. People do not know a lot about it because it is multifactorial in how it presents.
The frustration of not being diagnosed can also take its toll on patients. If you can imagine when you don’t feel well for a long period of time, you get really frustrated when you don’t have the answer you are looking for. You just know something is wrong and you don’t feel right or healthy. It is natural that feelings of depression might creep in. CFS costs the healthcare system about $379 million a year in treatment, ongoing diagnoses and other costs, such as the loss of income for the patient. Women are five to six times more likely to be affected by CFS, and most are aged from their late 20s to around 45. We are looking at six biomarkers to see if they are unique to CFS patients. If even one of them is unique, it will mean an easier, earlier diagnosis and will provide a platform to develop effective treatment of the condition. ARCH: Tell us how the study will work. SM: The project began with a small study, looking to see if a particular immunological cell was a biomarker unique to sufferers of CFS. Two were found that appeared to be unique. We have now received funding from Smart State Futures, the Mason Foundation and the Hunter Foundation, to look at six potential biomarkers. We have a total of 320 participants, of whom 170 are located here in southeast Queensland and 150 are from the Darling Downs area. These include CFS patients, a healthy group, and people who have fatigue-related illnesses that are not related to CFS. Over three years, we will be monitoring the group to see if the markers stay unique to CFS patients, and if those markers fluctuate over time with the severity of the illness or depending on their levels of activity. ARCH: What do you hope to gain?
Sonya Marshall
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Associate Professor Sonya Marshall played a major role in establishing the Public Health and Neuroimmunology Unit (PHANU) at Bond University. Much of her work relates specifically to autoimmunity in chronic fatigue syndrome sufferers, and in the area of exercise immunology. Her research has attracted more than $1 million in grant funding, and she has produced more than 21 peer-reviewed papers five book chapters, and one provisional patent.
SM: Based on these results, we are hoping to develop bestpractice guidelines and management for CFS. The ideal outcome would be to discover cells that are unique to CFS sufferers. We want people to be diagnosed earlier. This will reduce the expense associated with the condition and provide identity for people who suffer from it. We are now approaching the end of the first year of the study, and it is looking like the six markers are very unique to the CFS group, so it is looking favourable. But you can never be sure. I am a true scientist where I say I need evidence. But we are all hopeful. I look at people with CFS and I see a sad outcome for some who have searched to get answers and recognition, and haven’t received it yet. We meet regularly with CFS patients and speak at CFS support groups. Sometimes it is sad to see people who don’t have an answer for themselves and just have to take it day by day. ARCH: What happens next? SM: Another aspect of our study, still in the development stage, is to compare the potential biomarkers with other population groups that may suffer fatigue because of a related illness. For example, cancer patients who may be fatigued as part of their condition and treatment. We want to see if the biomarker is still unique. Our research study will be complete in December 2012.
Alumni
become
Helping Bondies
losers Summer 2010
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A Bond education is about entrepreneurial thinking, the quest for excellence and lifelong learning. In many cases, this unique education lifts Bond graduates to the top of their fields where they thrive at an international level in business, arts, leadership and law.
But for Bondy David Dobbie, who graduated in 1993 with a Master of Accounting degree, the ambition, determination and perseverance he gained at Bond paid off by helping him become a loser. A very big loser, in fact. And he couldn’t be happier.
Dobbie came in fifth
on Channel Ten’s weight loss program The Biggest Loser in 2010, ending a twodecade long battle with his weight and gaining a new lease on life. Now, he shares the secrets to his new motto, “embrace life,” with his fellow Bondies. ARCH: Tell us about your new motto. DD: The Biggest Loser took us to New Zealand and while we were there, my fellow competitors and I had the motto ‘embrace the process’. Since I’ve finished the show, I’ve adapted that motto to ‘embrace life’. I have been skydiving with my wife Jacqui, which is something I had always wanted to do but my weight held me back. I think everyone should skydive over the Gold Coast. It was truly awesome. One of my goals was to be able to do more with my wife and children and I have certainly achieved that, plus interest. Life is fantastic. I am fit, healthy, and have such a lot of enthusiasm for life and doing things. My wife and I are constantly looking for, and planning, fun and adventurous activities, which the whole family is enjoying. I wish I could bottle up how I feel and share it with every fat person out there. It may be just what they need to make a positive change in their lives. ARCH: What was life like before The Biggest Loser?
Get your head healthy first David Dobbie shares his top tips for finding the right mental headspace to get healthy: The secret to weight loss is getting the mental side of things sorted. It is important to work out why you are overweight and unhealthy, and to sort out your self-image issues. • Write it down and work on it, and if you need to, seek professional help. • Much of the weight-loss industry is about making money. There are no quick fixes, it is hard work and at the end of the day it is about controlling what you eat and how much exercise you do. Nothing else! • Find out what motivates you, which for me was being a better father and husband. • Develop a mantra that is specific and means something to you that you can stick by, which for me was “no excuses”. You have to find what works for you. • Put yourself out there and just do it!
DD: I was a ticking time bomb. Even though I didn’t realise it at the time, I could have done and achieved so much more over the past 20 years. I would take my kids to places and activities and I wasn’t getting involved. These are the memories that will stay with my children and impact them in the future. When I was younger I never really considered that my weight impacted on things I wanted to do. I was always able to play sport and do the things that I thought I wanted to do. I guess hindsight is a wonderful thing, and I know now that I could have achieved so much more. One thing that Michelle and Shannan (The Biggest Loser trainers Michelle Bridges and Shannan Ponton) taught me is that we can all do more physically. We are only limited in what we can achieve by our minds. ARCH: Did you struggle with your weight during your time at Bond? DD: I definitely considered myself overweight while at Bond. I concentrated all my efforts into my Master of Accounting and did little outside of that, especially for myself. While studying at Bond I enjoyed the smaller class sizes and what the University offered, I never felt like a number. This allowed me to throw myself into my study and achieve academic success that I had been showing potential in but had not to that point achieved. This success made me feel good about myself, but looking back, I was still very much in denial about my weight. ARCH: Tell us how that felt.
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DD: I battled with my weight ever since my father passed away in 1987. I always said that if I wanted to lose weight I
Alumni
could, but I realise now I felt unhappy and angry, and I was lying to myself about my feelings and habits. I always turned to food for comfort, so the angrier and unhappier I got, the more I ate. I can see now that mentally, the person I was then was not in a place to lose weight. It’s so easy to get caught up in the stresses and demands the modern world puts on us, that we can lose sight of who we are and what we want in life. Bond taught me that I had the potential to achieve anything, which was a great lesson that I lost over time. It is far too easy to get caught up in ‘life’ and lose sight of the things that are important. It was great to get that back while at Camp Biggest Loser. ARCH: What else did Bond teach you? DD: My Bond education certainly launched my professional career. I was successful at gaining employment with KPMG as a graduate accountant, which led to a very successful career as a Chartered Accountant. I am sure that my Bond education will continue to provide me with benefits as I move forward in my career. I am extremely grateful, firstly to my parents for giving me the opportunity to attend Bond, and also for having the experiences I did at such a fantastic and respected institution. My favourite memories of studying at Bond are of course the people. The lecturers were fantastic and were always available to help. There was a great sense of camaraderie between the students and back in those early years, you always felt as though you were part of something special. I am sure it is the same today. ARCH: There must be a lot of those fellow Bondies who are now in a similar position to the one you were in: they want to get active and healthy, but life gets in the way. What advice do you have for them?
Getting fit is good for business The statistics speak for themselves: • Fit workers make 60 per cent less errors on jobs involving concentration and short-term memory. • Vigorous exercise in the middle of the day improves mental alertness and productivity for up to five hours afterwards. • A Canadian journal found job turnover among fitness program participants was more than 32 per cent lower across seven years than with non-participants. • In a 12-month study of 884 employees who took part in a workplace fitness program, those who exercised just once a week cut their average number of sick days in half. (Source: Sport & Recreation New Zealand, www.sparc.org.nz)
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DD: The big lesson for me from Camp Biggest Loser – and the thing that drove me to so much success in the competition – was the mantra of “no excuses!” While our lives can get busy, it is easy to make excuses as to why we shouldn’t do something, rather than having the attitude of why we should. Work out what is important in your life and choose to fit it into your life. My motivation going into Camp Biggest Loser was to be a better dad and husband. When you have a partner and children, your priorities change and suddenly you realise that chargeable hours and recoveries on jobs are not that important in your life. We are all different, but for me, being able to play with my kids, read to them, and hearing those magic words “I love you” are a priority for me. I enjoy my training now and I make it a priority, and everything else has to fit in around it, including work.
Volunteering
time
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A self-confessed “borderline hyperactive” personality, Bondy Greg Vickery is also a father, a grandfather, a lawyer, a leader, a mentor, a volunteer, and National Chairman of the Australian Red Cross. What is his secret? “I just tend to say yes when I am asked to do something. It is easy to find time for things when you enjoy them.”
Vickery
earned a Graduate Diploma of Dispute Resolution at Bond University in the early 1990s, and has spent the 20 years since – as well as the 20 years prior – working in law and serving on the advisory boards of all four major Queensland universities, including Bond. At his law firm, Norton Rose Australia, Vickery manages an AusAID facility to improve economic governance in Indonesia, with an office in Jakarta that has a staff of 30 assisting the Indonesian Government in key economic portfolios to upgrade their skills. Vickery is also National Chairman of the Australian Red Cross and sits on the organisation’s International Governing Board. Both roles require him to travel frequently overseas to confer with Red Cross and Red Crescent societies in other nations, and assist in capacity building. Both are also volunteer positions.
Research at Alumni Bond
1970s, when he and a group of other young professionals joined together to organise fundraising events. “We had a wonderful few months working with the Red Cross at what was a fairly difficult time for them,” he recalls. Most of the new recruits left after a year or so, but Vickery had become involved in fundraising more broadly, and stayed on. He became Deputy Chairman, then Chair of the State Fundraising Committee. In fact, Vickery spent 25 years on the State Board, and is now in his eighth year as Chairman of the National Board, where he oversees an annual revenue budget that last year reached $1 billion and 5000 employees. “It is a big role, essentially as the ‘chief volunteer’. I chair Board meetings and the annual general meeting, and broadly help to supervise the management of funds. I review our services to ensure they are relevant and stay on track with our mission to use the power of humanity to help the most vulnerable people in our society.”
Charitable Australia
“It is a non-paying job but it gives me the chance to use my skills in governance and work with people collegially to achieve our shared humanitarian objectives,” Vickery explains. “My children have all grown up and are all lawyers in fact, so I have time to put something back into the profession. I feel you should do that when you have been privileged enough to get a good education and have had a good career. “In fact, I feel a moral obligation to do so. I really get great satisfaction from what I do and I will continue to contribute as long as I can. “It is about doing something for society and being a valuable part of the community. Working for personal reward throughout one’s life is not for me.” Vickery’s involvement with the Red Cross began in the early
The wider world is so different “I remember my first trip overseas, almost 40 years ago. I went to Indonesia and it really had a profound impact on me,” Vickery says. “There I was, 26 years old, and to go to a third-world country without the level of technology we had, to see the way people lived, and to see a stream that was being used simultaneously by one person to wash clothes, another to bathe their children and another to relieve themselves, that was incredible to me. “It brought home to me that the wider world is so different to what we experience every day here in Australia, and there
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Something for society
Australians are very charitable, Vickery says. One of his busiest times was early in 2009 when devastating bushfires swept Victoria. The Red Cross was the main recipient of funds for the bushfire appeal. “We received $400 million from 700,000 Australians, which was incredible. We then worked with the Victorian Government to help distribute those funds, which was a massive undertaking. “With disasters like this, there is never a shortage of volunteers and it is great to see how many people want to help. Thousands of people, in fact. “In the Red Cross blood service alone, we have at least 600,000 regular blood donors who donate on a very regular basis. This is a fantastic contribution to our health system.” The Red Cross also conducts international appeals, and this year it launched major appeals for the Haiti earthquake, the terrible floods in Pakistan, and most recently the Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand. “We also send delegates to assist in the disaster recovery,” Vickery says. Four years ago Vickery was elected to the Governing Board of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. “Primarily this role is about good governance and making sure activities are being coordinated well globally, with programs to help smaller national societies. “For example, I recently went to Fiji for a workshop to help improve governance of Pacific National Societies, clarifying what boards do and what management does.”
A million stories “I could tell a million stories of the inspiring, amazing people I have met,” says Bondy Greg Vickery. Here are three of them.
Namibia:
The former Secretary General of the Namibian Red Cross had a staff of four in the capital city, where AIDS was prevalent. One day she had half a dozen people turn up at her office who said they had the virus, and had been thrown out of their accommodation. She allowed them to stay with her, but her staff were against the idea as they did not want to share their one bathroom with these unfortunate people. So she went out, hired a Portaloo and tent, so that everyone could stay and work together.
Botswana:
In Botswana there is a 40 per cent HIV / AIDS rate, which is highest in the age range of 20 – 40. Some of the older Red Cross members live in huts next to children whose parents have died from the disease. These volunteers make sure the kids next door eat plenty of vegetables, do their homework and go to school. That doesn’t require a dollar from anyone, it is just wonderful Red Cross volunteers lending a helping hand.
Ethiopia:
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I went on a day trip to a remote village to see a water sanitation project. This village had more than 3000 people in it, spread across a fairly large arid plain, but with no running water. So the Red Cross organised to give the village a water-bore and pump so people could stay in their homes. We were being shown this pump by the villagers when suddenly I was surrounded by about a hundred kids of all ages, who had just finished school. They were fascinated by this Europeanlooking stranger. One of the boys spoke English, and acted as an interpreter while I talked to these children for about an hour. It was a great experience. I was learning more about them and they were learning about me. It was an unexpected meeting of the minds, really fascinating, and I didn’t want to leave when the bus was ready to take me and my colleagues back to Adis Abbaba.
are a lot of places where so much help is needed. I suppose it stirred my conscience and made a big difference to my life. It led me to do what I do now. “Now that my law firm runs the AIPEG (Australia Indonesia Partnership for Economic Governance) Facility in Indonesia I do go there quite a lot. I am happy to visit because to this day, it remains one of my favourite countries. I will always remember my first trip there.”
“Keeping a hand in” with education Complementing his dedication to the Red Cross and his work in law, Vickery also likes “to keep my hand in with universities.” He is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Queensland and sits on the Law Faculty Advisory Board at Bond University. “I have always thought it was important to have law practitioners more involved in law schools, and Bond University has always been very receptive to that,” he says. “In fact, when I was President of the Queensland Law Society, I ran a national legal education seminar at Bond University in conjunction with the Law Council of Australia. “I think other universities have learned a lot from the way the Bond Law School has taught its students and the subjects it has offered. “I was actually a practitioner in residence at Bond 18 months ago and I really enjoyed that. I do like mentoring and talking to students, sharing my experiences and giving guidance wherever I can.” How does he find the time and energy to contribute so much to society? “Discipline and time-management skills are important, but it is about keeping busy and making the most of life, taking every opportunity presented,” Vickery advises. “I love spending time with my family and going to sporting events. I will watch almost any sport. My wife and I also enjoy going to the theatre, concerts, ballet and opera. “It is certainly a full life, but it is also a very happy one, and that is the key.”
Research Competition at Bond
WIN
$250 to spend on
BOND MERCHANDISE The pride
that comes with being a Bondy is unique: the Bond experience is one of a kind. The networks that bring thousands of Bondies together across the globe are a testament to the fact that those who study here are truly bound together by their experiences. Now you can literally wear your Bond pride on your sleeve. The Bond University Student Philanthropy Council* has released the 2010 / 2011 Bond University merchandise range. Shirts, caps, hoodies and more all bear the premium Bond brand and are of the utmost quality and comfort.
How to win In this issue of The Arch, we are giving our readers the chance to win a $250 voucher to spend in the merchandise store. There are 10 vouchers to win. To be in the running to win, all you need to do is email us your current contact details. Send your name, address, email, phone number and current employment position to alumni@bond.edu.au. And in the meantime, why not visit the online store to view our full range: www.bondspc.com.au.
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*The Bond University Student Philanthropy Council seeks to cultivate a culture of giving, sprit and community throughout the University.
London Calling
The air was crisp but contrary to reputation the London skies were blue, as these Bondies donned their favourite hoodies and swapped stories about Bond connections.
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Left to right, Sarah Ingwersen, David Serafini and Julius Brookman.
Alumni
JULIUS: I joined the London chapter in 1997, so I’m truly vintage by most Bondy standards. I received invitations to the various events and have kept in contact with many alumni since 1997. I took over as Chairman of the chapter in October last year. RADHA: After being in London for 10 years, I went to the Bond Christmas party with a friend of mine who had recently arrived to London as well. We were pleasantly surprised to find so many people we already knew from Bond, who we’d lost contact with, as well as some friendly new faces. That was in 2009. Since joining the chapter, I’ve attended several enjoyable evenings and established friendships with some genuine, fun and like-minded – yet diverse – people. DAVID: I joined the London chapter as soon as I graduated, in June 2006, to stay connected and seek help and guidance from alumni to find my first job and to get up-to-date industry information. Now that I’ve been in London for many years, I have a lot of information to pass on to new graduates wishing to come here. AMBER: I’m the newest member of everyone here; I only joined up earlier this year. I wanted to reconnect with people I shared a common experience with, one that seems to have been a positive experience for all! DAVID: I agree. I enjoy the social gatherings, catching up with old friends and new graduates. I like to hear about what life is like at Bond now. ARCH: Can you share some of your best memories spent with Bondies in London? RADHA: The Christmas event was a fantastic reunion for me and I really enjoyed seeing long-lost friends again. JULIUS: Recently it was great to see so many people gathering at Bertorelli’s restaurant in Charlotte Street. We packed out a small room with around 25 people. Last year we had events at the Boisedale Club, Wine Wharf on London Bridge, and the spectacular city venue, Coq d’Argent.
acquaintances are finding life outside the Bond archway, and also to meet more recent graduates and students at Bond. AMBER: It is also a great opportunity to network. JULIUS: Definitely. On a professional level, it is important to maintain old contacts. London is a daunting and huge city, and it is best approached by those who know it and know how it works. The London chapter of Bond alumni is an excellent forum to do just that. RADHA: It is wonderful to have that existing connection through Bond. As a support group, the chapter is good for networking and growing business associations, especially when so many of us work in similar fields. But most importantly, the people are easy to get along with, welcoming and fun. ARCH: Are there many Bondies in London? DAVID: There do seem to be a lot less Bondies in London these days, possibly due to the global financial crisis. JULIUS: I should say that from a demographic perspective, it seems there are fewer Bondies in London than there were in the early 2000s. Partly, yes, I think because of the credit crunch. I understand total alumni numbers topped at 200 at some point in the past. Now that London seems to be recovering reasonably well from last year’s recession, I hope Bondies will reconsider London as a place to be. It certainly maintains its bustle of venues, events and amazing sites. ARCH: Think back: what stands out most to you about your time at Bond? AMBER: My stand-out memory of Bond is the international element of the university and the opportunity to study with people from all over the world.
The Bondies
DAVID: There have been many really memorable events over the years, from busloads of people going out to Cartier Polo and Royal Ascot races, to small gatherings in a pub. All of them have been good and I look forward to organising many more.
Julius Brookman Alumni year: 1995 Studied: Bachelor of Arts (International Relations and Communication)
JULIUS: Historically, some of my most memorable alumni gatherings were around 2001, when we went to Australia House, and in 2006, when we were invited to the Australian High Commissioner’s house.
David Serafini Alumni year: 2000 Studied: Bachelor of Business (HRM and Entrepreneurship)
ARCH: Why is it so important to stay in touch? AMBER: University is such a key cornerstone in one’s life. It is nice to keep in touch with people who have had the same experience. JULIUS: It is a real pleasure to see how my friends and
Radha Stirling Alumni year: 1996 Studied: Law (LLB) Amber Bennett Alumni year: 2000 Studied: Bachelor of Communication (Business) Summer 2010
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ARCH: When and why did you join Bond’s London chapter?
JULIUS: I made lifelong friends both internationally and from the Australian community. I have fond memories of my time around the campus… long (sometimes academic) conversations, and many VBs consumed at the local tavern! AMBER: I loved the student-to-staff ratio and the quality of the teachers. DAVID: I joined Bond because I am from the Gold Coast. I had friends and family that had been to Bond and, like Amber, I liked the smaller class-sizes for a more personal education. Bond has a good reputation for placing its graduates into work and the alumni network is also strong, much like my high school, so I was excited about that. RADHA: I enjoyed being part of life at the University. Some of my fondest memories surround the Karate Club, swimming at the beach in the early hours of the morning with fellow students, and the events and balls that developed so many friendships and enhanced the experience.
JULIUS: I also really enjoyed being involved in the clubs at Bond. I founded and ran the Environment Club and the International Relations Association. RADHA: Studying law at Bond was fulfilling and enriching in many ways. Not only was the content and standard of instruction superb, but the atmosphere was phenomenal for character development. ARCH: How did you settle in to life in London, and what work are you doing? DAVID: A few days after I graduated, I flew to London and I have been here ever since. I’ve worked at UBS Investment Bank, Credit Suisse Investment Bank, HSBC Investment Bank and Barclays Corporate Bank, all in human resources (HR) roles. AMBER: After I graduated, I worked for the Australian Rugby Union for the World Cup, then moved into licensing, managing businesses for Nickelodeon, MTV and now Disney. JULIUS: I grew up in pretty-but-small Hobart, and I wanted to go somewhere a bit more exciting. I had more relatives in the United Kingdom than in Sydney or Melbourne and I had British citizenship, so I came to London. I took a retail job in the wine industry, supposedly as a stop-gap, and enjoyed the area so much I went on the management and training program and gained my first wine certificate. Then in 1999 I started studying law part-time at the College of Law, London, and now work in the family business, practising family law. RADHA: After I graduated from Bond I moved to London and opened several businesses that fortunately flourished. Eventually this led me to the digital media industry, working with some of the biggest names in television. ARCH: What are your plans for the future?
Chair a chapter Bondy Julius Brookman shares what it takes to chair the London alumni chapter.
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“Being a chairman involves lots of work! No, in seriousness, I am supported by a very active committee that has been a pleasure to work with. We all seem to get along extremely well. I usually call meetings and write out the agendas, and am also responsible for much of the liaison with the venues I book, as well as collecting funds and supervising RSVPs. We have committee meetings and a great deal of email contact, and usually organise several events a year, depending on the particular committee involved.”
DAVID: Thankfully the global financial crisis didn’t really have much of an impact on me, so I foresee myself being in London for another year or so. But I am beginning to have thoughts of moving home, or to somewhere in Asia. For the moment I’ll stay in HR, but I am focusing my career on project management. Since the global financial crisis there have been many regulatory changes, requiring experienced project managers to run them. JULIUS: I was made a partner in my law firm a couple of years ago, and am currently looking at undertaking some studies which will allow me to practice in Australia. Our practice has a very international focus and a substantial amount of AngloAustralian work. RADHA: As a direct result of my work in the digital media industry, I was pulled back into law via a colleague who was detained abroad. I then started a legal not-for-profit organisation called Detained in Dubai, helping people in similar situations that has attracted worldwide media and government attention. The group offers internships to Bond students and postgraduates. I have also established an associated law firm, so I am back to my Bond roots.
Alumni
Summer 2010
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Vice-Chancellor Professor Robert Stable meets Bondies in London
Class
notes
Catch up on all that’s new with your fellow Bondies. They’re organised according to alumni year, the year they started their first degree at Bond.
What’s going on in your life and career? Email us at alumni@bond.edu.au with the subject heading ‘Class Notes’ and let us know what’s happening in your life, so we can tell your fellow Bondies in the next issue of The Arch.
Alumni year 1989 Andrew Cook moved to Toowoomba for a ‘tree change’ last year. He and his family now live on 290 acres and Andrew works for the Toowoomba Office of Murdoch Lawyers.
Alumni year 1990
Kapil Gaur is based in Los Angeles and will shortly head to Kathmandu for his step-daughter’s wedding.
Alumni year 1991
Adam Richards is married with two children, and works as a project manager at Ivensys, Eight Mile Plains (south Brisbane). Also a keen musician, Adam would love to get in touch with his fellow Bondies, and can be found at www.adamrichards.com. Masanori Matsumoto is on the academic staff at Bond and completed his PhD in 2006. His book, Persistence in Japanese Language Study at Universities in Australia, was published earlier this year, based on his PhD work. “The sense of achievement is really rewarding,” he says.
Alumni year 1992 040 40
Liz Picker is in her fourth year practising as a Barrister for
Edmund Barton Chambers in Sydney, where she moved with her children after five years practising as a solicitor on the Gold Coast. She keeps in touch with a number of Bondies, is involved in the Mentor Program and Student Development Office, and attends alumni events in Sydney. Peter Alatsas is married with two sons. He is General Manager for The Westin Bund Center; Shanghai, a position he has held since 2003, and author of Everything New is Free; Thoughts of a Globetrotting Hotelier. Michael Bates is married with three children. He is Principal at the law firm Abraham Legal Service in Brisbane, and President of the National Motorists Association Australia, a small voluntary group supporting motorists’ rights and interests.
Alumni year 1993
Ryan Lee spent the first decade after graduating from Bond in finance, then left the industry in 2006 to become an actor. He trained at LAMDA in London, and did Enron the play in the West End. He is keen to get in touch with other Bondies living in or visiting London. Sarah Cleaves established a business called Koru Consulting. She equips not-for-profits, social enterprises and churches with strategic management consulting, social enterprise development and resourcing options, to enhance social justice. Jane Morgan (nee Pedler) and her husband David welcomed their daughter Charlotte, into the world last year. Jane has now returned part-time to her private clinical psychology practice in Robina on the Gold Coast.
Research at Alumni Bond
Damien Millen is an Adjunct Professor of Law at Bond, a former director of Bond University Limited, and CEO of pharmaBank Pty Ltd, a global life-sciences management and investment incubator, based in Melbourne.
Mohammed Sofian Ismai & wife Porntip Promma
Alumni year 1994
Jen Storey recently started up two new businesses. The first is Outside Insights (www.outsideinsights.com.au), providing specialist consulting on strategy, design and marketing. The other, which she co-founded, is Interactive Minds (www. interactiveminds.com.au), Queensland’s leading networking forum for digital, online and interactive marketing. Adam Mooney will marry his long-term girlfriend Geeta Subramaniam in the UK in January 2011.
Alumni year 1995
Chris Goldworthy recently accepted a position as a NonExecutive Director at the Australian Ballet. He looks forward to contributing to the success of the company and the wellbeing of the dancers, as well as the unique challenges of working for a not-for-profit organisation. Michael Loterzo has worked at a construction company Grocon, for 15 years and now heads up the business in Victoria and South Australia. He is married to Gina, who worked as an administration assistant at Bond while Michael was a student. They have two children, James (11) and William (10). Jack Wever and Linda Wever-Buima both studied at Bond. They met in Australia, and were married at Movie World. They now live in the Netherlands with their two daughters. Jack is a consultant on public safety and crime prevention in the public and private sectors, while Linda has returned to study and is in her second year of a Bachelor of Nursing. Khanh Nguyen opened the Brisbane Migration Centre. He is married with one son. Claude Spiese is an IT / Finance consultant in Vietnam, currently engaged with the Ministry of Finance and the Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Exchange Centre. Claude’s son Antony, who was only four when Claude studied at Bond, just started studying at a university in the United States.
living and performing in Canada. She toured her stand-up comedy with Yuk Yuk’s, trained and performed improv with Loose Moose Theatre company, wrote a weekly column for a couple of papers, and welcomed baby number three into the world. She blogs regularly at comicmummy.com. Mohammed Sofian Ismail is Head of Internal Audit with a Malaysian water company, and competes in ironman triathlons in his spare time. He married Porntip Promma in 2003, and regularly meets up with other Bondies in Kuala Lumpur.
Alumni year 1997
Jeff Warren has worked at Burberry Ltd in London since 2006. He was recently promoted to Senior IP Counsel. Chantal Horton (nee Fox) has returned to Melbourne after four years working in human resources (HR) in Dubai, UAE. She gave birth to her first baby, William James Horton, in June, and has been married to husband Simon since 2008. She runs her own HR company, specialising in organisational psychology. Adam Rudegeair has been a professional songwriter, pianist and band-leader for 10 years. He performed at the Melbourne Fringe Festival in October with his band, Songs Without Worlds. In November, he recorded his second full-length album, Bayou Tapestry, to be launched in February.
Alumni year 1999
Heath Radel recently returned to Australia from the UK to take up a position as Head of Business Development at Wesfarmers Insurance in Sydney. Heath and his wife welcomed their second child in November 2010. Jenny Wynter recently returned to Australia after two years Jack & Linda Wever
David Parker is Group Manager – Legal and Business Services at Australian Grand Prix Corporation, located in Melbourne. The Corporation conducts the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park, Melbourne in March each year and the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at Phillip Island, Victoria in October each year. Amber Sheumack is a Technical Account Manager with Microsoft, managing the service delivery of large enterprise support contracts. She was married in November, and will change her name to Amber Coffey.
Alumni year 2000
Daniel Toomey is a Microsoft Certified Professional Developer and Senior Integration Specialist at Mexia Consulting, and presented for “BizTalk Hands-On Days 2010” in November. He frequently gives presentations about integration technologies for the Brisbane BizTalk User Group (www.briztalk.org), which he founded in 2005, as well as at Barcamp Brisbane and Barcamp Gold Coast. Jonathan George moved to Sydney earlier this year after living in Abu Dhabi since he graduated from Bond. He works Summer 2010
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Alumni year 1996
for the Macquarie Group as an analyst in the currencies trading division. He also passed his Chartered Financial Analyst Level 1 exam. On July 31, he married his university sweetheart Kristel Vincent. The couple met during Jonathan’s last semester at Bond and maintained a long-distance relationship while he was in Abu Dhabi. Rosemary Dux studied for a Graduate Certificate in TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) at Bond and is still enjoying teaching 10 years later. She loves her work so much that she undertook further study and has a Graduate Certificate of Higher Education, and recently graduated with a Master of Education with a major in TESOL. Carly Sheehan is now working in Pakistan with UNICEF on the emergency response to the devastating floods that have affected over 20 million people. She will stay for three months as an emergency resource mobilisation specialist. Carly previously worked in Lebanon, the Philippines and Bangladesh. Kirsten Bodenstedt recently finished working on Zack Snyder’s latest film Legends of the Guardians, where she was setting up the Stereo Production Pipeline at Animal Logic as a Senior Coordinator. She has worked in Oslo as a Studio and Production Manager, and in Canada where she opened a VFX company, www.peregrinevfx.com with her fiancé.
Alumni year 2001
Vicky Lawani joined Adrenalin Media as Operations Manager earlier this year. Since moving to Sydney in 2005, she has also worked for a digital agency, working her way from Web Developer to Executive Producer Web Services Manager. She also worked for Fairfax Digital from 2008 to 2010. Mari Hakkestad lives in Stavanger on the west coast of Norway, working as a psychologist within rehabilitation for adults. She is engaged to Chris-Tommy Simonsen and they will marry in 2012. She has two daughters, Ella (two) and Sofie (born in March 2010).
Alumni year 2002
Keith Rowley gained a position as Business Manager Africa with GroundProbe when he graduated from Bond in 2004. In 2009, he was offered a post running GroundProbe Geophysics in Perth, and has been living there since February 2010. Kimberley Bennett (nee Lucas) lived in London for three years, working as the EMEA Marketing Communications Manager for Herbalife and Marketing Manager for Samsung Mobile UK. After travelling throughout Europe and Africa, she and her husband returned to Australia and moved to Sydney, where Kim now works as Marketing Communications Manager for Samsung Whitegoods Australia. David Adimora runs a financial practice in British Columbia through Investors Group Financial Services. He is also establishing a brand awareness company to help successful startups gain valuable market share in the communities in which they operate. Laurent Corgnet spent two years as the head of Business Broking Brisbane, and was a Commercial Property Consultant with LJ Hooker Commercial Brisbane, before joining BFC Retail Group as a Director. He is now the CEO of the US subsidiaries of BFC Retail Group, and recently moved to Orlando, Florida, to lead the expansion in the Americas.
Alumni year 2003
Harit “Por” Na Pombejra works as an associate in his family’s law firm, HNP Counsellors, where he practices corporate commercial and foreign investment law, dealing with local and international corporations. He is a member of Southerners Bangkok, a sports club of mainly Australian, New Zealand, South African and English members. Travis Marker welcomed his fifth child into the world this year. He and his wife live in Utah, where Travis is in his seventh year of private law practice. William Chitsa is a registered professional civil engineer with extensive experience in infrastructure construction in South Africa and Zimbabwe. He hopes to move to Australia soon. Eissa Alharthi welcomed daughter Lujain in August this year, and was also promoted to Manager of Leasing and Administration of Properties for Etihad Airways.
Alumni year 2004
Geoffrey Kwitko lives in Adelaide with his long-time girlfriend. He recently sold his third Internet company and works full-time as an Internet Marketing Consultant. He also runs monthly business and technology workshops for StartupClub.com.au. He is looking forward to upcoming trips to India and Thailand. Stuart Floyd has discovered a passion for education while working at Bond University, where he has been since graduation. He is currently the International Regional Manager for all of the Americas in the Office of Admissions. Dini Martinez (nee Botzenhart) married her husband in Sydney in January 2010. She works as a Sustainability Consultant and has been seconded to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Adrian Praljak recently started employment as Senior InHouse Legal Council for Conrock Structural Pty Ltd, an international commercial and building company based in Melbourne. He is also studying with The College of Law, completing a Masters of Applied Law In-House. He is striving to be the youngest Legal Counsel In-House Specialist. Anton Seissiger started his own company in July 2010. His focus is on procurement and his company specialises in procurement consulting, research and development, professional procurement and wholesale. The majority of his projects so far are related to LED technology. David Burke married Angela Mason in Noosa on July 31 this year. He currently works as a solicitor with Freehills in the Banking and Projects Group.
Alumni year 2005
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Chantal Horton (nee Fox) with son William James Horton
Research at Alumni Bond
Kim Magee has worked for L’Oreal as State Manager in the Luxury Division, and recently opened her own company, KBI Group, focusing on natural, organic skincare, which she says will be available in prestige pharmacies and other retail outlets, as well as via her website, www.kibi.com.au. Shaun Haddrill-Hornstrand is running an online store, and has started a weekend store at Carrara Markets on the Gold Coast called Carrara Computer Services and Sales. Brandon Archbell and his bride Hayley married on November 6, 2010, at the Hyatt Sanctuary Cove on the Gold Coast. The couple met in South Africa and became an item when Hayley moved to Australia three years ago.
Jonathan George & Kristel Vincent
Alumni year 2006
Alumni year 2007
John David Wires works for Appleton and Associates International Lawyers in the Toronto office (www.appletonlaw. com). The company practices international investor state arbitration under the North American Free Trade Agreement. Aaryanti Palupim got married on July 25, 2010. The wedding was held in Aaryanti’s hometown of Malang, Indonesia, and the couple is moving to France to live. Matthieu Moulager and Julie Cardin both studied at Bond from September 2007 to August 2008. They are living together in Paris, where Julie is Head of Communication for a company specialising in touch screen technology. Matthieu works in real estate in Paris. Ruth Chai worked in family law after graduation, before taking up her ‘dream job’ with a non-profit organisation as a legal practitioner. She travels to remote areas of Queensland helping people for free, and Ruth says that while she enjoys living in the city, she appreciates the opportunity to “go out there” to witness for herself the way others live. “It is an incomprehensible experience,” she says. Liberty Chee worked in academia and civil society in the Philippines for two years before taking up her PhD study at the University of Singapore. Her research is on the governance of labour mobility in the Asia Pacific. Rhonda Levert is living in Toronto, where she works as Project Manager for the Technology and Operations department for the Bank of Montréal. She was married on the Mayan Riviera, Mexico, in October, with friends from Australia and fellow Bondies in attendance. Fitzgerald Green works as a law clerk with the USA’s
Department of State in Washington, DC, in the Employment Law section.
Alumni year 2008
Rob Layton has published a journalism textbook, Editing and News Design through Palgrave Macmillan, the writing of which formed the substance of Rob’s Master of Journalism degree at Bond. His book was endorsed by media designer Dr Mario R. Garcia, who wrote the foreword. The book, which Rob also designed, was released internationally in October with advance copies made available exclusively to Bond University as the primary text for a journalism course Rob teaches in the School of Communication and Media. Paul Carcallas works in Brisbane with Project Services as a Graduate Construction Superintendent. He also runs weekly events at Satin Lounge Bar hosting Uni Night @ Satin, and also bartends at the venue on Saturday nights. He is saving for a trip to the USA at the end of the year. Steph Spiller spent some time travelling through Europe after graduation, where she fell in love with Italy. She now works as a physiotherapist in a private practice in Melbourne. Laureen Brabant graduated with her Bachelor’s degree in 2010 and decided she couldn’t leave Bond. She has decided to complete a Master of Business at Bond too. “As soon as you enter the Bond world, it is really hard to leave the place,” she said.
Alumni year 2009
Dani Smythe is planning an Indian adventure for January 2011, called the Rickshaw Run, a 3000 kilometre race across India in a rickshaw (or a “tuk tuk”) from January 1, 2011, with two fellow Bondies, Hugh Minson and Christopher Conradi. The trio aim to raise $15,000 for charity FRANK water and create a documentary about their adventure. They have also created a website, www.tukiteasy.com. Simon Winfield is working for a paint manufacturer called ecolour based in Byron Bay. ecolour produces non-toxic paint, completely free of volatile organic compounds and uses a key recycled ingredient. Summer 2010
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James Durman recently completed his probation period with Australian Energy Market Operator as a Graduate IT Analyst. He received an interview with AEMO within weeks of graduating from Bond in 2009. Over the next few years, he has plans to travel overseas and continue working as an IT Engineer. Kelsey Anderson welcomed her first baby, Eli Anderson David, in August 2010 with husband and fellow Bondie Andrew David. The couple moved to Melbourne in 2009, where Kelsey works at Monash University’s Office of International Engagement as Manager for Africa and North America. Gaea Maria Anonas works at the United Nations headquarters in New York for the 2010 General Assembly in the Press and Meetings Department, a position she took up in September 2010. She previously worked for the Philippine Senate as an Executive Assistant for Senator Richard J Gordon, who ran for President in 2010. “Working for the UN is not just a job for me, it has always been my dream,” she says.