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Ancora Imparo, July 2007

4 July 2007

A function was held in June to announce that Mr Trevor O'Hoy has agreed to be Chair of the Monash University Fundraising Campaign.

Vice-Chancellor Richard Larkins, Monash Student Association President Zoe Edwards and Mr Trevor O'Hoy at the launch.

Trevor graduated with a Bachelor of Economics degree from Monash University in 1976. He joined CUB as a cadet-executive in 1977 and rose through the ranks including appointments as Chief Financial Officer and Managing Director of CUB before being appointed as the CEO and President of Fosters Group Limited in 2004.

He has taken Fosters to the position of the leading fine wine company in the world and the largest multi-beverage company in Australia. He has been accorded many forms of recognition including the CFO of the year by Insto Magazine, the most admired new CEO of the year by BRW and Monash Distinguished Alumnus of 2005.

Trevor is committed to Monash University, with both his children and his wife also Monash graduates. Although extremely busy, he readily accepted the invitation to be Chair of the Monash Campaign because he recognises the importance of universities for their transformational effect on individuals and the roles that they play in the economic health of the country and in solving the problems confronting the planet.

In his speech when accepting the Monash Distinguished Alumnus Award and in his address at the function to announce his role last month, Trevor showed he is an individual of humility, integrity and commitment. He is hugely respected by the business community. We thank him for taking on this onerous role.

Why is this role so important? As I have said on many occasions, Monash University has the potential to be a truly great international university. If Australia is to be internationally competitive, it is essential that we have a small number of universities able to hold their own with the best in the world.

Monash is ideally placed to rise to the very top echelon with the accompanying benefits that this would convey to our students and graduates and to Australia. Our international footprint, our partnerships with government and industry and the trajectory of our research performance place Monash in an ideal position to become one of the great universities of the world. In addition, the collocation of the Australian synchrotron and CSIRO in the heartland of Victorian manufacturing at our Clayton campus provides a unique opportunity.

Despite encouraging federal budget initiatives described in my column last month, Australia's universities are considerably under-resourced compared with our international competitors, not only those in North America and Europe but increasingly when compared with the best universities in Asia.

Singapore, Korea and China are placing an enormous priority on developing top international universities and the best universities in those countries are recruiting outstanding staff and developing state of the art facilities as a result of public and private investment.

Monash University celebrates the 50th anniversary of its proclamation in Parliament in 2008. It has achieved an amazing amount in its first fifty years and has the potential to achieve much more in its next fifty years.

It will require a substantial increase in funding to achieve this and philanthropic support from our substantial base of alumni and friends and from the corporate world will be an important component of this.

The leadership and example of Trevor O'Hoy is an exciting demonstration of the commitment we hope for from the Monash community and from the corporate world.

Professor Richard Larkins
Vice-Chancellor