2017

Rob Castaneda
Bachelor of Science in Computing Science (2001)

In 2001, just before he graduated from UTS, 21-year-old Rob Castaneda used a few hundred dollars to launch the technology business that would later come to be known around the world as ServiceRocket.

"One of the beautiful things about UTS is the industry focus and practicality of the courses," he says. "Everything is structured to help you navigate your way in your industry."

Rob credits his mentors within the Faculty of Engineering and IT - former Industry Liaison Manager Des Saunders and Research Associate Dr George Feuerlicht - with helping him find suitable projects during and after his studies. In turn, Rob has regularly supported mentoring and scholarship programs for UTS students and even taught alongside his mentors.

"They really opened my eyes to what was possible in the world," says Rob. "So I'm inspired to help other people smash through some barriers and make a difference."

Since its inception, ServiceRocket has built a reputation for helping non-technical people and programmers alike do more with software. Employing more than 200 people in Sydney, Palo Alto, Kuala Lumpur and Santiago, and with company earnings in the tens of millions, ServiceRocket has gone from strength to strength and Rob has been celebrated as one of Silicon Valley's best and brightest, recognised as one of the '40-under-40' entrepreneurs by the Silicon Valley Business Journal.
In 2016, in partnership with Australian software company Atlassian, ServiceRocket was approached by Facebook to be one of its global launch partners for 'Workplace by Facebook'. Meanwhile, NASA sought ServiceRocket's expertise with software for the Mars mission.

Rob was recognised by President Barack Obama for his role in co-ordinating a global entrepreneurship program between American and Muslim entrepreneurs. As a proud member of the Conscious Capitalism movement, Rob hopes to motivate his team members, business partners and even the students he mentors to find greater purpose for money than just acquiring "stuff" for themselves.

"What I try to encourage in everyone is an interest in making a difference because there's so much disparity in the world. The more we learn about other people, empathise with them and look for ways to help, the better our communities become."

Caroline Meldrum-Hanna
Bachelor of Arts in Communication (Journalism) and Bachelor of Laws (2007)

Caroline (Caro) Meldrum-Hanna is a highly respected and multi-award winning journalist with ABC TV's Four Corners, renowned for her skill in uncovering social justice stories that drive reform.

Her report 'Making a Killing', the expose of the illegal practice of live baiting in greyhound racing, had major industry repercussions and saw her receive a Gold Walkley, the top honour for an Australian journalist .

Caro has received many industry accolades for her body of work, including multiple Walkleys, a Human Rights Commission Media Award and the prestigious Melbourne Press Club Journalist of the Year Award. She won the Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year award and the 2017 Logie Award for uncovering the horrific abuse of children in juvenile detention centres in the Northern Territory in her Four Corners story 'Australia's Shame', which prompted a Royal Commission just hours after broadcast.

"I blame - no, I thank Wendy Bacon (the Head of Journalism at UTS for 21 years) for leading me into journalism," says Caro. "She taught me the quiet art of self-belief and determination, and she arranged an internship with ABC's investigative unit as part of our practical journalism modules that got us out of the classroom and into the world."

Caro was mentored at the ABC by Deb masters, who later became her producer on multiple Four Corners reports and encouraged her to find her own style. 

Caro admits that as a child she used to drive her parents mad with endless interrogations about issues big and small. These days, she still won't stop asking questions, and says the behind-the-scenes research work matters so much more than being a face on television.

"Having your face on telly doesn't make you a journalist: a journalist is someone who digs and digs into information to find the truth. The narrative, subjects and sources should be the main focus - the journalist is not the story."

"Unfortunately journalists have poor reputations - muckrakers, tricksters, fake news! - but the good ones outweigh the bad. I get my strength from giving a voice to the voiceless, holding power and authorities to account, and making change.

"Journalists can improve or destroy people's lives. It's a big responsibility that I take very seriously. To find people's stories, tell them and try to make things better."

Mark Isaacs
Bachelor of Arts in Communications (Writing and Cultural Studies) and Bachelor of Arts in International Studies (2012)

Mark Isaacs admits his early motivation to write about social issues was ideological. And while he notes that many young people want to save the world but give up because the 'work' of advocating change is hard, Mark has persevered, by learning to view political change as a work-in-progress - a series of drafts and edits.

"My passion for altruism came from my parents, who worked in hospitals, helping people in some way every day. I chose writing because for me, the way to restore compassion and empathy in the world is through art. It's rarely through politics."

Associate Professor Debra Adelaide, UTS creative writing lecturer, had warned Mark that getting a book published was not a simple matter of handing in a story. He needed to do many more drafts so his work stood up to scrutiny, and he would have to develop the discipline required to maintain a career as an independent writer.

Dr Rosie Scott, who sadly passed away this year, was another of Mark's creative writing lecturers and a fellow social justice campaigner. She had urged him to go where the real stories are.

"Rosie told me that if you want to learn about stuff, don't just read. Go out and do it."

Mark took himself into conflict zones in Mexico, Myanmar and Afghanistan, and to detention centres at Villawood and Nauru, and wrote about his observations and experiences.

At great risk of personal persecution, he was among the first to publicly shatter the veil of secrecy around Australia's offshore immigration detention centres, giving his eyewitness account into the climate of fear and suicidal despair for the detainees within.

Mark's explosive 2014 book The Undesirables: Inside Nauru is a personal account of his experiences working for the Salvation Army in the Nauru detention centre. It revealed the everyday human stories, fear and tragedies for the people inside the centre to an Australian public largely conditioned to perceive asylum seekers as 'queue jumpers' and 'illegals'. His follow up book Nauru Burning gives an insight into the conditions that led to the riot and fire that destroyed much of the centre in 2013, and the story of the detainees' fight to prove their innocence, and the workers who tried to help them.

Mark was subsequently commissioned by the Edmund Rice Centre for Justice and Community Education to travel to Afghanistan and document the plight of returned refugees. His experiences have featured in a wide range of international publications, including Foreign Policy, The Guardian, New Matilda, New Internationalist, World Policy Journal, VICE and Pacific Standard.

Mark's next project is a book about a community of youth he lived with in Afghanistan, to be published in 2018.

"These young people want a non- violent, green and equitable world. They're not naive in their goals - they don't think they'll all be achieved in their lifetime - but they're building the foundations for a better future for Afghanistan. They're teaching other street kids to read and write; they're growing gardens."

"This is a country that's been at war for 40 years. What these people are trying to achieve is remarkable, and now they just want to support themselves."

Sophie Blackall
Bachelor of Design in Visual Communication (1993)

Sophie Blackall is an award-winning artist, book illustrator and global literacy campaigner. In 2016 she won the prestigious Caldecott Medal - the illustrated book world's equivalent of an Academy Award - for Finding Winnie, a bestselling children's book about the incredible true story of the bear who inspired A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh.

Sophie lives and works in New York, where her designs have been sold at the Museum of Modern Art and have been featured by The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, National Public Radio, Huffington Post, and on subway posters throughout the New York City metro system.

However, it is Sophie's work with global literacy and health campaigns that gives her the greatest sense of pride.

"There's nothing like putting on a show for a thousand school children in a place where literacy rates are appallingly low, and all of them get to leave with a free book. And to have a child say: 'I didn't know girls could do that - I want to do this when I grow up.' Or to be in Rwanda where children have to walk for up to two hours to get to school, and to see them hold their very first book in their hands and recognise themselves in stories."

Sophie also combines her storytelling skills with illustrations for poster campaigns for The Measles and Rubella Initiative. Designed to improve immunisation rates in Congo, India and Cambodia, the campaigns are improving life expectancy, and medical practitioners have praised artists like Sophie for motivating people with art, rather than the usual data and graphs.

Sophie credits the visual communications course at UTS for honing her typographic and graphic design skills, and remembers how artist and former lecturer Peter Powditch taught her to see things differently.

"I remember the very first class with Peter. He had us all put a ladder on a page. The word 'put', rather than 'draw', was the first clue this was going to be interesting. My eyes opened a bit wider and my heart beat a bit faster, and that was just the beginning," Sophie says.

"I was incredibly fortunate to have Peter as my mentor and I still hear his voice in my head as I work. He taught me to notice things that had previously been invisible, to turn anything into a tool to make marks, to pull an image out of thin air. I learned to never be daunted by a blank page."

Adrian Appo OAM
Bachelor of Teaching in Adult Vocational Education (1995)

Adrian Appo's drive for self­ determination for Indigenous people has been motivated by the daily struggles he and his family members have faced accessing education, dealing with financial and government bureaucracies, and getting meaningful work.

"I don't want to live in a world where my children and their children have to face that same racism as my dad and me," he says, "and this mindset has transformed into improving the career and life prospects for a whole lot of other people."

Prior to studying at UTS, Adrian served with the Royal Australian Air Force, for which he was later awarded the Australian Defence Medal in 2001. After graduation, he worked as a teacher and a recruitment consultant, focused on providing new employment opportunities to the Goulburn Valley community in regional Victoria.

In the late 1990s, Adrian was frustrated by the limitations of working in generic government­funded employment programs. Drawing on the skills he had gained at UTS for establishing not-for-profit programs, Adrian founded Ganbina, Australia's most successful Indigenous 'education to employment' program.

Ganbina has helped more than 500 young Indigenous Australians finish school, access further education and training, and secure worthwhile jobs with real career growth opportunities. It has always operated without any form of government funding.

Adrian has developed partnerships with local communities, including families and businesses, and consults with various government bodies on other employment and economic development strategies.

Currently Adrian is a director for several social enterprises including the Australian Centre for Rural Entrepreneurship, Social Ventures Australia, and Children's Ground, an organisation helping parents raise their children to be both strongly immersed in their Indigenous culture and fully engaged in the Western world.
Adrian was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2011 for service to Indigenous youth through career planning, employment and training programs. He has also received a Centenary Medal for his work with Indigenous young people.

His current major focus is his role as Chair and Executive Director of First Australians Capital, an investment fund that helps Indigenous businesses to thrive.

"We want to bring more Aboriginal people into the economic environment in Australia," he says. "Real determination happens when you're controlling your own economy. It shouldn't be just my journey or First Australians Capital's journey - it should be a journey for all Australians."

Om Dhungel
Master of Business Administration (2001)

Om Dhungel is an outstanding advocate for refugees. Drawing on his own experiences as a Bhutanese refugee in Australia, Om has forged a remarkable career helping others in need and shaping the agenda in rethinking approaches to refugee resettlement.
"Every individual, whatever the situation may be, has strengths," says Om. "If we help them discover those strengths, people are able to look after themselves."

In 1992, Om crossed from Bhutan to Nepal to escape arrest and torture for his political views; leaving behind his wife, two-year­ old daughter and a stellar career in telecommunications with the Government of Bhutan.

For six years he volunteered in refugee camps in Nepal, focussing on advocacy and children's education, became a spokesperson for the Bhutanese Coalition for Democratic Reforms, and co-edited and published monthly news bulletin The Bhutan Review and Bhutan annual human rights reports.

Om came to Australia in 1998 and began an MBA at UTS to build on his business leadership skills. Every spare hour he worked in a supermarket "to scratch together money to live on and pay for fees". He was eventually granted asylum and permanent residency in Australia in 2000.

Today he draws on those financial survival skills gained while studying, when teaching his workshop 'Rethink: Solving problems by breaking them into smaller parts'.
"In my final year, one of my teachers helped me apply for a $5,000 scholarship," Om recalls. "That support and the fantastic counselling service at UTS saved me when I was on the verge of giving up."

Om's MBA has had a significant impact on his career, setting him up for leadership roles at Telstra and in the community, including his role as Founding President of the Association of Bhutanese in Australia.

In 2016 he was selected as a Westpac Social Change Fellow, and has now established a consultancy facilitating a strength-based approach to refugee settlement and community development, helping refugee communities to cultivate and channel the resources and skills that refugees bring with them.

By strategically drawing upon their skills and strengths, refugee communities can take the lead in addressing issues, setting their own agenda and shaping their own future.

"We need to change the debate on refugees from 'sharing the burden' to 'sharing the opportunity'. If we change the resettlement model from a needs-based approach to one that focused on strengths, more people will see the socioeconomic contribution of refugees.

"I've been really fortunate in having wonderful family support, and every single day I see if I can help somebody. When you help people find work that's meaningful, they can achieve a lot more."

Catherine Breen Kamkong
Bachelor of Applied Science in Nursing (1993)

Catherine Breen Kamkong is an internationally lauded healthcare reformist who once dreamed of joining Australia's Royal Flying Doctors, and now travels the world with the United Nations helping millions of people access better healthcare.

Whether tending to refugees in Nepal or lobbying governments for better maternal, reproductive and sexual health programs, for Catherine, the dedication, hard work and rewards are the same.

"In healthcare you see the fruits of your labour," she explains. "It's why my mum became a nurse and my grandpa became a doctor. When I visited Mum at work I saw her making a difference for the patients every day and that was very appealing.

"A big lesson I learned at UTS was respect and empathy for each patient. It's just a day at work for you, but it's a really important day for that person and their family."

Catherine enrolled in nursing at UTS in the early 1990s when Australia urgently needed more nurses. Soon after graduating she went to work in countries even more desperate for healthcare professionals.

Early stints with Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity and with Tibetan refugee camps in India motivated her to study the politics of healthcare. Catherine wrote her thesis on the impacts of conflict and confinement for young refugees while treating refugee women at Sydney's Liverpool Hospital.

"I was showing the women the birthing rooms saying, 'here's a bath, here's a nice bed and here's a ball you can sit on,' and this woman laughed at me. She said, 'back home I'd go by myself into the fields, deliver my baby by myself and come back'. 

"It struck me the terrible situations refugee women endure during their pregnancies and childbirth. It motivated me to make a bigger difference for more women and their babies."

Now Catherine is working on maternal health programs with experts like UTS's Distinguished Professor of Midwifery Caroline Homer. In Cambodia, they have reduced the maternal death rate from 1,200 women per 100,000 live births in 1990, to 170 per 100,000 in 2014, by training midwives in emergency obstetric and newborn care techniques.

"Midwives really save lives. We're aiming to harness as much support as possible so we can drop the maternal and newborn death rates even further to reach the UN's sustainable development goal of 70 women per 100,000 live births by 2030."

Rebekah Giles
Bachelor of Laws (Hons) (2001)

Rebekah Giles is one of Australia's leading commercial litigators, yet she was raised with no expectations of entering a career in law.
Growing up in Sydney's Hills district, higher education was not part of the culture at the time.

"Even to go to Year 11 was a big deal. When one of my teachers said law would be a good fit, the other teachers said: 'Oh, well maybe you could be a legal secretary, if you really have to pursue this law thing."'

Rebekah confounded those expectations by being accepted into Law at UTS, achieving Honours, and forging a successful legal career that has seen her recognised for her adroit negotiation skills.

She praises Professor David Barker, former Dean of UTS Law, and her Torts lecturer, Professor Sam Blay, for having confidence in her and encouraging her to pursue tricky topics.

"My mentors at UTS taught me the importance of good relationships, and also to find things that I'm passionate about then just go for it fearlessly. It set me up for my career."

Rebekah's promising career almost ended when she was caught in the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. Barely surviving, she needed more than 140 surgeries and was told she might not have children.

Remarkably, just two years later at age 29, she became the youngest female partner of international law firm Kennedys. Then in 2010 the first of Rebekah's two children was born, thanks to a fertilised embryo implant.

Rebekah's experiences have fuelled her passion to give back. She is now an ambassador for the Fertility and Research Clinic at the Royal Hospital for Women Foundation. She is also Chair of Sydney's Centennial Parklands Foundation, which recently opened the Ian Potter Children's Wild Play Garden providing an outdoor learning experience for thousands of children. She is also a Director of the Greater Western Sydney Giants, which this year entered a team in the maiden season of the AFL Women's Competition.

Having also benefited greatly from her early mentor relationships, Rebekah is dedicated to contributing her expertise to UTS students and the broader Sydney community.

"Lawyers have these fantastic skills; not just persuasion but also the power to effect change for our communities. I knew after the tsunami I didn't want a standard legal career. I wanted to live and work for something bigger."

Dr Louise van der Weyden
Bachelor of Applied Science in Biomedical Science (First Class Honours and University Medal) (1997)

Dr Louise van der Weyden is globally recognised for her cancer research, though she eschews the limelight, preferring to work behind the scenes in a lab.

"Cancer is a devastating disease and when you see the suffering these patients and their family members go through, it drives you to keep on going, to make a breakthrough that could be translated to the clinic," she says.

The research laboratory was not her first choice of 'office'. Her first job was examining patients' specimens as a trainee hospital scientist in the Cytology Department at Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital.

Louise remains eternally grateful to UTS Associate Professor Kevin Broady who, in her third year, suggested she switch her focus to research and encouraged her participation in a career-defining student research project during the summer break. 

"It was like introducing a pig to mud," she says. "Research and me - we are a match made in heaven. I loved it so much I went on to do an honours year at UTS with Professor Broady, investigating the venom of the common death adder."

It wasn't the only match made during her degree. During her final year at UTS, she met her future husband David Adams while lunching over a microscope and went on to share the Haematology Prize with him.

Now in her lab at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, Louise and her team have made several important discoveries, including advances in using animal models of cancer and the identification of a new pathway regulating immune control of metastasis - the number one cause of death for cancer patients.
Her recent paper in the prestigious science journal Nature explains the role the human body can play in controlling tumour growth, and how the loss of a gene called 'Spns2' can cause a reduction in tumour colonies.

"Each discovery, no matter how small it may seem, is an important piece that could help solve the cancer puzzle. Seeing more and more people defeating cancer due to better treatments and knowing that in some small way I have helped contribute - that's what unquestionably makes it all worth it."

Rachel Grimes
Bachelor of Business in Accounting (1991)

Rachel Grimes is internationally recognised in her field, both for her achievements as an accountant, and for her talent in lifting other people up with her.
"Wonderful Loreto nuns taught me that you can do anything. So find what needs doing. They establish schools all over the world, setting up in places that you wouldn't want to go on holidays, and they change people's lives for the better."

Rachel's experience studying at UTS built on that foundation; teaching her that the work of accountants often happens at the 'coal face' where the decisions they make can truly assist people, and that fixing ethics as the cornerstone of every decision can make the world a better place.

"My peers at other universities said their courses were so dry, whereas we had lecturers like Jon Tyler (UTS Business School Associate Professor) educating us by using practical examples. Other courses focused on frameworks exploring how situations like the Space Shuttle Colombia and the Zeebrugge ferry disaster could have been avoided. These were real topics that were interesting and made you want to do well."

It's an ethos that Rachel has applied throughout her career. As CFO of Technology at Westpac she oversees a major budget for its technology needs. Previously, she was Director of Mergers and Acquisitions and was the co-lead on the bank's merger with St George, which was the largest financial services transaction in Australia's history. In her role as President of the International Federation of Accountants, Rachel has also been responsible for chairing its Technology Advisory Committee, looking to drive the future of accountancy and ensure that standards are appropriate and relevant for global users.

As a passionate champion for diversity, Rachel has been instrumental in establishing training programs and mentoring networks to encourage more women and Indigenous Australians to become accountants.

A long-time sports enthusiast, Rachel funded her university experience by teaching tennis, and even considered sports journalism at UTS early on. She has served on the Tennis Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, and now works alongside Surfing Australia's Chair Layne Beachley as Chair of the Finance and Risk Committee, during this exciting period as surfing becomes an Olympic sport.

"Who knows where anything can take you? Forget leaning in - put your hand up, make sure it's seen and get involved. My great love of sport led me to the ICAA Tennis Committee, which led to other committees, to having the opportunity to meet with the Pope," she says with a smile, "and that's how I eventually became President of all the accountants in the world."

Jake Duczynski
Bachelor of Design in Animation (Hons) (2016)

Although animator Jake Duczynski only recently graduated, he has long known about the beautiful synergy between Aboriginal culture and animation in the art of storytelling.

"Both use vivid imagery (paintings), sound (song) and kinetic energy (dance). Animation is the best way to translate and share this culture. One of the biggest changes in the industry is funding for Indigenous projects in an attempt to preserve what little culture remains after years of oppression."

In the brief period since completing his studies, Jake has already begun to make an indelible impression on the Australian artscape, with his animation commemorating the 25th anniversary of the landmark Mabo High Court decision to be projected onto the outer skin of Sydney's Maritime Museum this year.

This follows Jake and his small team at SBS winning the 2016 Walkley Award for Multimedia Storytelling and the award for Best Responsive Website at the SXSW Festival in Texas for their interactive animated Indigenous language app, My Grandmother's Lingo. This unique animation immerses users in the story of a young Aboriginal woman from Ngukurr in the Northern Territory who is trying to save her native lingo ("Marra") by learning from the dying elders in her community.

Jake believes interactive stories bridge imagination and reality, appeal to our curiosity, and enable us to share history. He credits the inspiration of his strong, loving family network for motivating him to reach wider audiences. Witnessing many of his relatives overcoming adversity has encouraged Jake to tell real life stories that provoke thought.

Jake sees the challenges inherent in this, particularly in an animation industry that gives primacy to commerce over art.

"Like in many other fields, time is money - and so often production quality suffers because of this. There are plenty of animators and companies that are happy to churn out imitated garbage. They cash grab and forget about the story they're telling or the integrity of the art itself."

Animation is built on honesty, he explains. "No artist should forget about the story they're telling or integrity of the art. With so much of our work online, you're exposed to the best animators in the world - it keeps you humble and hungry."

He thanks Deborah Szapiro, UTS lecturer and animator, for encouraging him to use animation to open minds, to be bold, and to understand there is no success in half measures.

"I'm eternally grateful to the animation tutors at UTS. They're a mob who grew up respecting the traditional art form and the grind it takes to succeed. It's what the course is built on, and why it's breeding successful animators."