Events

Japan Alumni Network Zoom — Sunday 17 January

Our Japan Alumni Network launched in 2020 to bring our MQ alumni community living and working in Japan together and hosted their first Japan Alumni Network event for 2021 on "Breathe".

Our guest speaker Raphael Bender, CEO of Breathe Education, shared on how Breathe, an Australian pilates course provider, has grown after pivoting online as a result of COVID. A Q&A was held Raph's business and passion, Pilates, as well as general health and wellbeing.

Canberra Alumni Network Drinks — Wednesday 17 February

Our Canberra Alumni Network hosted their first informal networking drinks event at Ostani Bar. We had a great turnout!

Three keys to making 2021 a fulfilling year with Farah Allouche — Thursday 25 February

Our France Alumni Network hosted an interactive webinar with special guest speaker Farah Allouche who explored three key concepts which will offer a different perspective in these uncertain times and enable you to approach 2021 with confidence and equanimity.

About Farah

Farah Allouche is a professional coach, consultant and trainer. After graduating a Master in Financial Management, she occupied various executive positions allowing her to assess the business models and risk profiles of thousands of firms, and manage cross-cultural teams and projects for ten years. Farah then created her own company whose mantra is Be well and lead well. Through coaching business owners and managers as well as business consulting, she seeks to develop leadership skills in order to contribute to both individual and collective growth. Personal development, running and yoga count among her favorite passions.

Women in Leadership Webinar — Tuesday 9 March

We celebrated International Women's Day with a panel of inspirational women who are changing the world. They led a discussion on how they are inspiring and challenging the status quo and celebrate women's achievement.

Guest speakers:

• Her Excellency Ms Gillian Bird – Australia’s Ambassador to France, Algeria & Monaco
• Her Excellency Dr Modupe E. Irele – Nigeria's Ambassador to France & Monaco
• Her Excellency Ms Anna Bossman – Ghana's Ambassador to France & Portugal
• Mrs Amelia Lakrafi – French Member of Parliament

• Lady Ngo Mang Epesse – Women Rights Expert

Brisbane Alumni Network Drinks — Thursday 11 March

Our Brisbane Alumni Network hosted their first networking drinks for 2021 at the beautiful Howard Smith Wharves.

Meet the artist Deirdre Dowling: an Aussie musician in Paris — Wednesday 21 April

Our France Alumni Network hosted a webinar with principal violist Deirdre Dowling, a current Macquarie Global MBA student, who shared her insights as an Aussie musician living in Paris, and balancing work and study.

About Deirdre

With the aid of grants from the Australia Council and the Ian Potter Foundation, Deirdre moved from her hometown of Melbourne to The Hague in 2001 to undertake post-graduate and Master’s degrees in period instrument performance. In 2005 she moved to Paris where she is still based.

Deirdre is principal violist of two of Europe’s foremost original-instrument ensembles, Philippe Herreweghe’s Collegium Vocale Gent and Cecilia Bartoli’s Monaco-based orchestra, Les Musiciens du Prince. From 2012 – 2017, Deirdre was principal violist of Ton Koopman’s Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra.

Deirdre also regularly works with Les Arts Florissants (William Christie), Les Musiciens du Louvre (Marc Minkowski), Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century (Frans Brüggen), and The Netherlands Bach Society (Shunske Sato), with whom she has toured much of the world performing repertoire ranging from Monteverdi to Berlioz, recording many CDs along the way.

In 2010 Deirdre was appointed co-artistic director of one of Switzerland’s premier baroque music festivals, Musikdorf Ernen. The popularity of the festival has grown over the last twelve years such that it has doubled in length, concerts are sold out, and the festival is attracting increased tourism to the region.

Backpack to Briefcase: Beer with the Boss — Wednesday 26 May

We held our popular Beer with the Boss speed networking event at the Verandah Bar in Sydney.

Our bosses for the night included:

• Charlene Hu BAF (2016) – Chief Executive Officer, Block42
• Clement Tsang BA (2000), LLB (2001), MBA (2004) - General Manager, Global Media Partnerships & Innovation, Amplifi ANZ
• Curt Shi MA (2003) – Managing Director, Imprint Investment Partners
• Feroz Khan MComm (2010), MComm (2012) – Managing Director, Newport Capital
• Sunny Sirabas BComm (Mktg) (2008) – General Manager – Innovation, Chartered Accountants Australia New Zealand

Thailand Alumni Network Global Seminar — Thursday 3 June

Guest speaker Dr Prashan Karunaratne BEcon (2003), BEcon(Hons) (2004), PhD (2019) - Course Director, Bachelor of Commerce, Macquarie University, lead a discussion on the business impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and crisis globally, and how to make strategic decisions in the months and years ahead.

About Prashan

Prashan Karunaratne is an inspirational and innovative teacher and researcher of economics and business analytics at Macquarie University and MQ alumnus. His enthusiasm for teaching economics, and passion for improving student outcomes, have inspired and engaged students for more than a decade. He nurtures students to develop a desire to engage in the field of economics and business analytics, and is a firm believer that the learning journey benefits both teachers and students.

Chengdu Alumni Hotpot event — Friday 2 July

Our Chengdu Alumni Network hosted an informal hotpot dinner for casual networking. What better of a way to connect over great food!

Leaders, Innovators & Disruptors - In Conversation with Lex Pedersen — Wednesday 7 July

We sat down with MQ alumnus Lex Pedersen (BA 1999), Director and Portfolio Manager at CHROME TEMPLE.

About Lex:

In 2006, Lex created SurfStitch, Australia’s first pure-play online surf retailer, from his home garage. SurfStitch became one of Australia’s earliest, largest and most rapid eCommerce growth stories. As Managing Director of SurfStitch, Lex guided the business to consistent triple figure growth, reaching $100mm in sales within four (4) years. As the business continued to achieve triple figure growth in Australia, Lex expanded ambitions internationally, with the opening of SurfStitch Europe in 2012. In 2014, SurfStitch became the first successful Australian pure-play retailer to achieve a pre-IPO capital raise, listing three months later.  During his tenure at SurfStitch, Lex was responsible for establishing and overseeing the operations in Australia, the United States and Europe.  Following several strategic retail and media investments, SurfStitch became the world’s largest and first global surf eCommerce powerhouse reaching a market capitalisation of over $500m.

Lex identified an opportunity to buck the traditional agency model by providing businesses with innovate digital solutions that are supported through expertise, knowledge, investment, and revenue/profit share. And in 2017, Lex departed SurfStitch to co-found PeriscoPe Digital Group, a full suite eCommerce service and strategy powerhouse.

Lex is also the owner and founder of 1 Day Wraps Australia, an on-vehicle ‘guerilla marketing’ agency that focuses on vinyl wrapping vehicles to promote businesses in an age where traditional forms of promotion are becoming far less effective and increasingly expensive.

Following his passion for collecting cars, and his subsequent needs to store them, Lex recently co-founded CHROME TEMPLE, a high end “Car Concierge” business that stores, maintains, restores, sources, wholesales, transports bespoke motor vehicles. In 2021 Lex successfully launched Australia’s first investment fund targeted exclusively at automobiles of distinction via CHROME TEMPLE investments Mach 1 Fund. Several other automotive culture inspired initiatives await.

Thailand Alumni Network Exercise Online Classes — Saturday 17 July

Our Thailand Alumni Network hosted an energising morning yoga session with instructor K Sukanya To-Ngam (Fitness First Thailand), and a fun zumba class in the afternoon with instructor K Apisit Siripongwakin (freelance trainer).

Leaders, Innovators & Disruptors - In Conversation With Rob Keldoulis — Wednesday 28 July

We sat down with Rob Keldoulis, CEO of Viviene Court Trading, a financial trading firm where wealth is generated with a social conscience. Unlike any traditional financial institution, VivCourt is centred on the employees, customers and charities.

About Rob:

Rob started in the markets in 1987, the year of the great crash when the markets fell 50% in a week. He travelled through China and the Soviet Union before Tiananmen Square and the fall of communism, worked in New York as the manager of a jazz band and toured Italy before ending up in Amsterdam in 1989. He spent 6 years working in the Dutch trading pits before coming back to establish Optiver Australia in 1995. He started with a friend and grew the company to 200 people, retiring in 2010.

He took to Buddhism in 2008 and worked for the Dalai Lama, arranging 5 of his visits to Australia from 2008 to 2015, living and travelling with him for 2-week periods when he visited. In 2012 he opened Vivienne Court Trading and placed the ownership of the company into a charitable trust so that 100% of corporate profits would flow to the charitable sector, rather than 1% which is the average corporate philanthropic spend.

To date VivCourt has generated about $65m, $10m of which has been directly donated and the balance retained to grow the capital base of the company.

Purpose-driven business as a force for good — Wednesday 9 December

Prof Debbie Haski-Leventhal shared a discussion on the purpose-driven business as a force for good.

What is the role of business in society and what can it do to help address the global issues we face? How do we find our individual and organisational purpose and how do we lead with impact?

In this webinar, Prof Debbie Haski-Leventhal will discuss innovative and cutting edge concepts, frameworks and cases of business as a force for good to offer a new way of moving forward.

From social entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship to corporate social activism, we will examine what businesses can do to become agents of world benefit and change themselves and society for good.

About the speaker:

Debbie Haski-Leventhal is a Professor of Management at Macquarie Business School and an expert on corporate social responsibility (CSR), responsible management education (RME) and volunteerism. She is the author of Strategic CSR: Tools and Theories for Responsible Management (SAGE), The Purpose-Driven University (Emerald) and Employee Engagement in Corporate Social Responsibility (SAGE).

She is also a TED speaker and a public speaker on purpose, social responsibility and the future of higher education. She has published over 50 academic papers and her work was covered by the media, including The New York Times

South Asia and South East Asia Leadership Briefing — Thursday 30 November

We hosted our 2020 South Asia and South East Asia alumni catch up on Zoom. Professor David Wilkinson, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Engagement shared a University update and it was an opportunity to connect with fellow Macquarie alumni across South Asia and South East Asia and grow your professional network.

Virtual Alumni Forum — Tuesday 24 November

In light of the rapid changes to the COVID landscape in Australia right now, we brought our alumni community together for an opportunity to share updates, insights and discuss our future plans for business education here at Macquarie.

During the virtual session we heard from:

• Professor S Bruce Dowton (Vice-Chancellor, Macquarie University) on the current state of higher education in Australia and how Macquarie is responding along with his insights into what remote learning means for the future of the university sector;
• Professor Eric Knight (Executive Dean, Macquarie Business School) on the challenges facing business schools and the vision that he and the leadership team have, in order to tackle the immediate challenges we face; and
• Professor Leonie Tickle (Associate Dean, Learning and Teaching), on the future of teaching in the context of digitalisation/online learning as well as the need for new kinds of learning environments and tactics.

Q Incubator Pitch Final 2020 — Thursday 5 November

The best way to get an understanding of what we do here at MQ Incubator is to step inside.

We held the MQ Incubator 2020 Pitch Final where hearing from our inspiring start​up finalists and the amazing success stories from the Incubator.

2020 was a year of solid growth for several startups at the Incubator, and we can't wait to share with you.

The event provides an opportunity for investors, aspiring entrepreneurs, businesses and the larger Macquarie Park Innovation District to learn more about our amazing startups and to hear from our panel of experts who will put them through their paces during Q&A.

Startups are pitching for a chance to amplify their message and showcase their businesses to potential partners, investors, customers (+ the prize and bragging rights, of course).

​Join the audience and vote to decide who will win the audience choice award for Best Pitch.

Innovation and tech trends with Enrico Tam — Wednesday 28 October

Enrico Tam, tech guru and Cofounder and Co-CEO at PosiWise and CloudOlive, shared on innovation and tech trends at the Incubator's Leaders, Innovators and Disruptors event.

About the speaker: After trying to become a professional tennis player, Enrico somehow got entangled in a PhD in engineering, an MBA programme and a big consulting firm before being drawn into the startup world.

Enrico is now a successful tech entrepreneur, consultant and advisor. He's passionate about building and delivering new projects, as well as helping other entrepreneurs succeed with innovation. He's successfully launched several businesses from scratch and grown them to 7 figures. That journey provided him with extensive business experience in management and sales, as well as the know-how on building scalable tech products.

Philippines Alumni Network Event — Wednesday 28 October

Our Philippines Alumni Network held their first virtual event to bring our alumni community living and working in the Philippines and many more living in Australia and around the world who share a connection to the Philippines together. 

Guest speaker Leah Callon-Butler, Director, Emfarsis, shared her thoughts on "The future of work, one year later, one year to go?”

Leah presented at a Macquarie Graduate School of Management event a year ago here in Manila, sharing her perspective then on work as a Philippines-based digital currencies consultant. A year on, and with us all mostly working from home and more dependent on technology, Leah will get us started in an interactive discussion on new ways of relationship building and collaboration in the workplace.

Make better decisions using a strategic mindset — Tuesday 27 October

COVID-19 has among others accelerated and increased the uncertainty & ambiguity of any organisations' context and makes the decision-making at any level much tougher.

Are you approaching your own area of decision-making during this COVID-19 challenge the right way? Are you trained and experienced enough in making decisions in uncertain and ambiguous situations? Do you know the most effective concepts and tools to deal with such situations?

Dr Roger Moser covered how to turn questions into hypotheses to test them and the most suitable frameworks to draw on to smartly combine Big Data analytics and Small Data analytics into insights that can be actioned without bias.

About the speaker:

Dr Roger Moser is Senior Lecturer in Strategic Management in the Department of Management at Macquarie Business School, Adjunct Professor at the Indian Institute of Management in Udaipur, India, and Director of the Asia Connect Center at the University of St.Gallen, Switzerland. He also acts as Chairman of SatSure Ltd., a satellite data analytics and intelligence provider for banks, insurers and governments in emerging markets.

He is a thought leader in the emerging field of Decision Intelligence – a combination of managerial, behaviour and data sciences to improve the decision-making practices of senior leaders. Based on his expertise, he coaches MNCs and SMEs in how to improve their intelligence gathering and processing practices in dynamic business contexts including Asia & Digitization or now COVID-19.

Virtual Beer with the Boss — Monday 26 October

We hosted our most popular Backpack to Briefcase Series – Virtual Beer with the Boss. This is an alumni speed networking event where you connect with 'bosses' – senior alumni with impressive job titles and even more  impressive career journeys – and tap into their life experience.

The concept for Virtual Beer with the Boss is simple: grab a drink of your choice, relax and  speed network with a ‘boss’ in a group. Gain insight about industry trends, ask questions you  might have or just listen to the discussion and learn. Each session will be timed to 15 minutes,  and after, you will move onto the next ‘boss’.

Our bosses were:

• Benjamin Wong BAF/BComm (Actuarial) (2004) – Banking & Financial Services
• Curt Shi MA (2003) - Founding Managing Partner, Follow [The] Seed; Partner, Welinda and Shi Capital
• Greg Reinhardt BEcon/LLB (1998) – Partner, Norton Rose Fulbright
• Jason Duarte BComm (2005) – Head of Public Sector & Institutional Banking ACT, Westpac
• Karen Ganschow MBA (1991) – Head of Data Sciences, Aware Super
• Kathrina Doran PCMgmt (2007), PDMgmt (2009), MBA (2014), MMgt (2014) - Founder and Principal  Consultant, 5D Intelligence
• Lucie Chami BComm (Mktg) (2008), MIntBus/MIntRel (2010), MBA (2014) - Chief Procurement Officer, Vitex Pharmaceuticals Pty Ltd
• Mike Morgan PDMgmt (2003), MMgt (2003), MBA (2005) – Vice President &  Managing Director APAC, Insight
• Paul Chang BSc (2006), PDMarketMgmt (2012), MMgt (2014), MBA (2017) -  International Coach for Global Executives and Entrepreneurial Leaders
• Dr Shanny Dyer BSc (1985), PhD (1997) – Chief Executive Officer ARCS Australia Ltd

2020 Trendsetter Panel Webinar: (Re) visioning education for the future — Tuesday 20 October

Join education experts, system and school leaders and industry representatives as they unpack modern education in world of uncertainty. 2020 has been a year of great turmoil and has required adaption across many sectors in society. We have witnessed various responses to these challenges and at the same time seen great opportunities and innovation arising from these shocks to established systems.

Education is an area that has not been immune to these changes. We will discuss why there is a need to take stock and reflect on the key role thateducation plays in supporting children, parents, educators/teacher and industry to move forward in difficult times.

Our panelists will include:

• Natasha Copley - Human Resources Director, DXC Australia and New Zealand
• Stephanie McConnell – Principal, Lindfield Learning Village
• Andrew Williamson – Principal, Carlingford West Public School
• Dr Luke Touhill – Director, Mia Mia Child and Family Study Centre,Macquarie University
• Associate Professor Tiffany Jones – School of Education, Macquarie University and
• Associate Professors Matt Bower - MQ School of Education.

Canada Alumni Network Zoom Check-In — Wednesday 14 October (Canada)

Our Canada Alumni Network hosted an informal networking and check-in session over Zoom.

Paul Chang, Canada Alumni Network Leader, held an interview-style conversation with Canadian alumni to discover how they’re connected to Macquarie and Canada, where they are in life, their work, how they are dealing with the pandemic and what they are doing to cope.  Interviewees included alumna Ashley Kalagian Blunt (author of How to be Australian).