A network of movers and shakers
Following
the success of last year’s inaugural event, UniSA’s Network Now is taking
place again on May 12, giving students, graduates, and anyone looking to get
a head start in their career, the opportunity to meet successful UniSA
alumni and leading movers and shakers from a broad range of industries.
To maximise opportunities to meet and talk in a friendly environment, six students are seated with two prominent alumni and at the end of each course, the students move to another table. The Graduate caught up with some of the hosts before the big event to find out a little bit more about them and what they’ll bring to the table.
You’d
think that as director of national chartered accountants company, Haines Norton,
Allen Bolaffi might be busy enough. But think again. While juggling a successful
business and spending time with his wife and two daughters, he is also state
president of the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce (AICC) and an avid
supporter of nurturing and educating a younger generation of business leaders.
Allen Bolaffi completed a Bachelor of Accounting degree at UniSA’s antecedent institution, the South Australian Institute of Technology (SAIT), more than 30 years ago. Working all the way through his degree in an accountancy firm, he says it was exciting to be studying finance and business at a time when the federal treasury changed hands three times in as many fortnights and the Governor General Sir John Kerr dismissed the Whitlam government.
“I was at Arthur Young for about five or six years,” he said. “I started out as an audit clerk and had no idea what I was doing. It wasn’t until I started at uni and realised what the industry was about.”
These days Bolaffi works in his Peel street offices specialising in
Australian and overseas business consultancy, finance and investment as well as
overseeing the SA and NT chapter of the AICC. In his role as AICC founder and
state president, he hosts trade delegations to Israel to encourage trade and
foster close business relationships between the countries, promoting
collaboration across a range of industries such as manufacturing, information
technology, agriculture and tourism.
And Bolaffi is passionate about mentoring those coming up through the business
ranks.
“I think it is fabulous that in our industry there is a generational change occurring – because with that comes fresh new ideas.”
Working
with information technology for close to 20 years, Jo Stewart-Rattray has seen
the industry go through many changes. But when she first studied her Bachelor of
Education (Adult Education) majoring in human resource management, little did
she know she would eventually head up a highly successful information technology
(IT) and security company as director of information security, consulting with
businesses from across Australia about how to protect their most treasured
commodity – information.
Because Stewart-Rattray’s career always had an education and training element in human resources and IT, she undertook a Masters degree in Education Studies majoring in psychology at UniSA, graduating in 2000. “I believe education is something we need to do, especially in the IT industry where everything is so fast paced,” Stewart-Rattray said.
And psychology is a useful tool when auditing organisations and helping them manage change to procedures. “One of the natural human conditions is resistance,” Stewart-Rattray said. “My team members are not guns for hire. We work as an organisation’s security partner. I’ve been involved in writing a lot of policy and planning for Australian organisations and one of the most rewarding things is to see an organisation you’ve reviewed take up your recommendations.”
When she meets UniSA students and graduates at Network Now, she says there is some advice she can offer about working in IT, and working as a consultant. “Sometimes it is not such a bad idea to go general and work out what things actually appeal to you. There may be some things that you don’t like. So it is about finding your specialisation and what you want to be a champion of. I honestly believe that if you are prepared to work hard, there are plenty of opportunities out there.”