Katherine Woodthorpe

Deans, members of UTS staff, distinguished guests, brilliant graduates, family and friends – you’re so proud I know – I’m honoured to be asked to give the occasional address to you today. Having been a member of the UTS council for several years, I have a great fondness for this university, and it’s always a delight to come back. Plus I get to wear my glorious robes, though I do feel a bit like a kid on her first day at Hogwarts, because they’re a bit big. You’ve worked hard for three or more years to reach this point. Many others including your parents and relatives have worked hard, as Rob Kelly acknowledged a moment ago, and I’d like to add my acknowledgment of the sacrifices they’ve made and I think they deserve one more round of applause from everybody. Well done everyone [Applause].

It’s exciting times; it’s exciting to think of what the future holds. You’re business graduates, law graduates, you might expect to make a lot of money, work in some exciting sectors, become captains of industry. But there might also be exciting and fulfilling alternatives to the usual paths to success. UTS’s values have the mnemonic ‘deeds’; Discover, Engage, Empower, Deliver and Sustain. But by what deeds will you be remembered? Will it be that you made a lot of money? That you worked long hours, benefited your employer, maybe at the expense of your family? Or, alternatively, that you became an entrepreneur and built a sustainable business that provides jobs for others? Or that you worked in a not-for-profit organisation making a difference to the world? As I often remind people, we live in a community, not an economy. So what difference will you have made? Your graduation marks the beginning a new phase in your life, whether you studied straight full-time through school, or worked and studied part-time, your new qualification will open doors and paths for you to go down. But try to consider and remember those UTS values as you weigh your choices. Discover. Keep questioning and learning. Don’t feel you have to take the path well-trodden, but look for your own path.

My career was certainly not a well described route with GPS instructions. I’ve always found Robert Frost’s poem, the Road Less Travelled, holds a special resonance for me, especially the closing lines: ‘Two roads converged in a wood and I, I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference’. I never thought when I graduated first with a degree and then a PhD in chemistry from the UK that I would end up as an adjunct professor in a Business faculty in Sydney and amongst other board rowers chairing Australia’s largest co-working space, Fishburners. And a quick shout out, we have a burner here in the audience – hi Maddie. I first came to Australia to work as a chemist in the mining industry in Western Australia. I lived in a rough little mining town near Kalgoorlie, which some of you may have heard of, not everybody has. It was still a time when women were heavily discriminated against. It’s hard to imagine these days that as recently as the early 80’s in WA women were forbidden by law to work underground. They could drive those huge trucks with wheels taller than an AFL ruckman as long as it was an open pit mine. But somehow when they went underground, when that same mine dug under a lintel and started to work underground they were deemed unable to do exactly the same job, as if they somehow became incapable when they lost the light. Who knows. If you wanted to go for a drink with your workmates, especially males, you’d hear a whisper if you tried to go into the bar of the local pub: ‘No sheilas in the bar…’ And you’d be politely but firmly asked to go and sit in the ladies lounge, a sterile place with very nice Formica tables. Australia has come a long way. And so have I, from a nerdy mining chemist to I guess probably still a pretty nerdy business person, and I must admit my son still calls me Sheldon.

The learning you’re undertaking getting a degree is only barely to do with the content, and everything to do with training your thinking and ability to investigate and articulate ideas. Don’t be shackled by the title of your degree. Continue to explore. And innovate. And if that journey takes you in another exciting direction, go for it. Empower yourself. My career has been totally unplanned. You wouldn’t want to plan where to get where I am today by the convoluted path I took. I was actually born in Malaysia, raised and schooled in Hong Kong, university in the UK, but most of my career in Australia. I took opportunities where they presented themselves, even though they came out of the blue and were totally left-field. After working in a mining lab I soon realized this was not where I wanted to be on a 40 degree day without air conditioning, so I moved to the UK and went into sales. Connecting two disciplines of science and business was very effective and I enjoyed the role enormously. The whole of Britain was my territory, and the freedom and autonomy were great for somebody like me who had a very bad respect for authority. At the time I think I was the only woman PhD selling scientific equipment in the UK, and I had to ignore the doomsayers who all said it was a waste of my PhD. The next opportunity came when the company I worked for needed an international sales manager, and they said well you’ve lived all over the world, you could do it. And I went, yeah sure. And they gave me an airline ticket and off I went, and worked it out on the way. Later on when I was working in Australia someone tapped me on the shoulder and asked me to set up an industry association helping emerging technology companies get their exports up. Again something I knew nothing about, small companies, but whatever ‘I’ll give it a go’ has always been my motto, and so off I went. And one of those emerging companies was ResMed, now, as most of you would know, a multi-billion-dollar enterprise. And my last executive role came again out of the blue when someone called and asked if I would run the private equity adventure capital association. To be frank I’d never heard of private equity, but there’s nothing like faking it ‘til you make it. It took a lot to learn, and a lot of challenges, and it was the best fun.

Despite a seemingly random series of jobs and decisions and opportunities that brought me to this point, a consistent theme aligns with those UTS values – I engage with everybody I meet, because I genuinely love to hear people’s stories. I try to empower those that work for me, so they often have gone onto bigger and better things, and I’m left behind feeling like a proud parent. And having worked in service industries and always having to feed myself and my teams, I’m always conscious of delivering the highest service level to delight customers and clients. As Mark Twain said, ‘Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living; the world got here first.’ Consider what you can do to tread lightly and leave this a better world. We need more people trained in business to help the small innovative companies of today become the economic powerhouses of tomorrow for Australia to remain relevant, sustainable and competitive in the future. Consider aiming to be an employer, an entrepreneur, not just an employee. Consider aiming to come and visit and work with someone like Fishburners, we’re just down the road in Harris Street. Friday night, pitch night, free beer, five o’clock, open to everybody…come and see what a bunch of startups are like. Think about where your skills can be used. Consider working for buyer techs, not just banks. Think of IT as a sector to work in, not just gadgets to play with. And look around ask yourself, by what deeds you’ll be remembered. By curious, keep listening, keep learning, don’t ask why, ask why not? And finally, I’d like to leave you with my favourite piece of verse, by Hilaire Belloc, by which I always try to live my life: ‘From quiet homes and first beginning, out to the undiscovered ends, there’s nothing worth the wear of winning, but laughter, and the love of friends.’ Thank you, good luck.