Professor Paul Ryder completed his PHD in Organisational Psychology at the University of Queensland in 1978. He worked as a researcher in advertising and the public sector in 1968, prior to commencing graduate studies. He remained active in applied action research as a consultant to industry, during his early career as a teaching academic in management and organisational studies at UQ, QUT and Griffith universities.

In 1986, he was appointed foundation Head of Overseas Programmes at Curtin University of Technology. This began his lifelong interest in international students and intrapreneurial ventures in tertiary institutions at a senior management level.

He was appointed to Bond University in 1992 where he developed a remote campus MBA and in1994 to Griffith University, Gold Coast, as Professor and ultimately Dean of Business and Hotel Management. In 1996 he joined James Cook University as Executive Dean, Business , Law and the Creative Arts before joining Newcastle University as Dean of Business in 2002.In each of these positions new academic programmes were launched that generated substantial revenues and grew the institution’s profile.

At JCU and Newcastle, undergraduate and postgraduate joint ventures were created with Holmes Institute. In 2004 he became foundation Executive Dean at Holmes when Holmes was the first private institution approved to offer stand alone tertiary awards. He has been a part of the Holmes success story since, domestically and globally.

He remains very active in course delivery as well as his executive duties and is personally involved with the student body at Holmes on all campuses. He is an advocate of new blended learning technologies.

His dual priorities remain the academic and personal development of Holmes students and building and retaining a profile of experienced, highly qualified staff.

He has 20 published refereed papers in academic journals and supervised 4 doctoral candidates to completion. He was President of the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management for 3 terms and has served on several Editorial Boards.

Stephen Nagle has been involved in the Australian Higher Education sector since 1988 as an Executive Director of the Holmes Education Group. Previous to that time he worked as an interpreter/translator in Hamburg, Germany.

As the CEO of Holmes Institute, he has been instrumental in establishing Holmes as a leading private higher education provider with campuses in Victoria, NSW and QLD. Over a 20 year period, Mr Nagle has supervised the accreditation of 4 Masters degrees and 4 Bachelor degrees across a diverse platform including Business Administration, Fashion and Information Systems.

Following extensive research in Israel and Australia, Mr Nagle established the Cyber Security Research and Innovation Centre with funding from Holmes Institute in 2018. The centre is designed to complement the Information Systems Faculty at Holmes. High level research in cryptography and security provides masters’ students with the opportunity to interact with research fellows whilst carrying out project work as part of their degrees. Mr Nagle is also actively involved in the IoTAA (Internet of Things Association of Australia).

Alex Anderson has over 30 years’ experience in the Australian domestic and international education sectors since 1989. In various roles within the Holmes Education group, Mr Anderson has been pivotal in the groups strategic direction and expansion.

As Chief Operating Officer Mr Anderson now plays a senior role in the leadership and oversight of the group including operations, marketing, compliance, course development and strategy.”

Professor Whitaker was trained as a geomorphologist at the Australian National University and Cambridge University.

Chris has been active in environmental assessment in both South Australia and Western Australia. In SA he headed the environmental assessment of the Roxby Downs (“Olympic Dam”) project. More recently he was a member and then Deputy Chair of the EPA of Western Australia from 2007 to 2012.

From 1996-2000 he was Director General of Transport in WA. Responsibilities included preparing Westrail Freight for privatisation. He then became Managing Director of the Melbourne Port Corporation in 2000.

In August 2003 he was appointed as Pro Vice-Chancellor (Business) and Professor at RMIT University, and from August 2004 to April 2005 he worked as Vice-Chancellor and President of the University. He was also a Member of the Board of RMIT University (Vietnam) during a period of rapid expansion of its operations.

He has also worked with Curtin Consulting (as an Adjunct Professor) on various projects for visiting overseas public sector students (1998-1999), as a Visiting Professor in Global Logistics, INHA University, South Korea (2007), with SIM University (Singapore) as a member of its International Academic Panel (2006-2007), and with Holmes Institute (Victoria) as a Foundation Member of its Governing Council (since 2018), and Member of the Industry Advisory Board (2007-2018).

He now works primarily as a consultant in port-related matters around Australia and in a voluntary capacity for the Solaris Cancer Care Foundation.

Professor Whitaker is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Transport and Logistics, a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management, a National Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration, and a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Andrew Rimington is a Certified Career Coach and Contract Service Provider Coach with extensive experience in the Employment Services and Vocational Education and Training sectors. Drawing from widely diverse experience, Andrew educates, mentors and energises job seekers across all sectors and levels, guides in career exploration and direction, Selection Criteria and resume development, working one on one and with small to medium groups.

Andrew is accredited in Behavioural Psycho-metric personality instruments, and he is an experienced, accredited rehabilitation counsellor for Workers Compensation and TAC – internationally recognised for his professionalism and expertise in the career development space. Andrew reactivated his consulting and private practice across career management, coaching and corporate workforce strategy after leaving the Victorian Chamber of Commerce in July 2015.

Andrew has over 25 years’ in senior management roles working for both Commonwealth and State governments in the employment, education and training (EET) program delivery and policy areas. Andrew also managed a University Careers Advisory service and held a senior management role with a private training provider, as well as a consulting and private practice working primarily in career transition and rehabilitation.

As the Senior Policy Manager with the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), Andrew brought a focus across EET policy nationally through Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Committees and Working Groups. In addition, he has been involved in many committees, reference groups, University Course Advisory Committees, Skills Councils,and Industry Training Advisory Boards as well as Ministerial appointments to advisory boards in employment and education.

Andrew has enjoyed a long-term commitment to the national Career Development Association of Australia, Australia’s leading cross-sectoral peak body for career development practitioners, being elected to the National Committee in 2011 and National President in 2013, and completed a four-year term in May 2017. Andrew has become internationally recognised for his professionalism and expertise in the career development space and has been both the Australian Country Director at the Asia Pacific Career Development Association and including a two-year appointment as Treasurer on the Executive Board. The APCDA Newsletter Contributor Award was presented in 2018. Andrew was appointed as a Board Director as the Australian representative of the International Centre for Career Development and Public Policy in 2015 and led an Australian team to the bi-annual International Symposium held in Korea in June 2017. Also in 2017, the National Career Development Association of the USA awarded Andrew the NCDA International Practitioner of the Year Award.

Professor Peter Schmidt has a track record of contributions to Information and Communications Technology (ICT) deployment in Australia business enduring over five decades. Peter was one of the developers of the first higher education degree course in computing in Australia. Peter was himself an international student taking his Masters in Management Science (Operations Research) at the University of Waterloo (Canada). This university developed and owned the Blackberry mobile phone.

Peter worked at the heart of the computer industry at IBM and developed a consulting practice to the computerised glass industry (Glass Containers Pty Ltd); banking (NAB); pharma (Eli Lilly); Defence Science and Technology Organisation; Australian Government and Commonwealth Secretariat (London) and many others.

Peter was Director at the Australian Management College (Mt Eliza) – Australia’s premium school for practising managers.

Peter has devoted the last 25 years exclusively to developing, teaching and managing Australian university courses for international students as Dean of Studies for a consortium of 11 Australian universities in Malaysia, as Director of Business Courses for Monash University Malaysia, as Academic Head of James Cook University’s joint venture with Holmes Institute in Melbourne and Sydney and as various senior academic roles with Holmes Institute of MBA Convenor, Dean (Academic) and Chair of Academic Board.

Mr Donald Kauffman has over 30 year experiences working in the education industry. He has worked extensively in Australia as well a New Zealand, USA, Canada and the United Kingdom.

Mr Kauffman worked for Holmes Education Group for 16 years in Sydney and was instrumental in the success of our degree programmes in Australia.

For the past 5 years Mr Kauffman has been based in London and brings a unique international perspective to our group.

Maree held the position of  General Manager at the Holmes Education Group from 1993 to 2019.  She was responsible for the day to day operations across the different sectors in which Holmes delivers courses.  She currently consults to the group on administrative, audit and compliance matters.

Michael has over 30 years within the accounting profession and is a Certified Practising Accountant Member of CPA Australia, Chartered Taxation Advisor of the Taxation Institute of Australia, Registered Tax Agent and Director Principal of a boutique accounting firm, MJS Accountants Pty Ltd.

Michael has an extensive knowledge in Corporate Advisory and Chief Financial Officer roles and responsibilities, Financial, Management and Business Advisory services, Business Tax, International Tax and Structuring, Tax Management, Strategic Planning and Structuring to a diverse range of industries and High Net Wealth Individuals, Family Groups/Offices and Business Clients

As Director Principal of MJS Accountants, Michael and his team are able to provide a comprehensive offering to Clients to attend to their Corporate, Business, Tax and all associated Advisory needs. Also, Michael is able to provide a Family Office offering which is boutique to Client’s family requirements. Michael is highly regarded by many Clients for his ability to attend to their needs and requirements in a professional manner. Michael is also well known for his advisory skills in the business sector.

For a number of years Michael has been a regular contributor on corporate, governance and taxation matters, particularly in relation to aspects of corporate and management governance, business and investment structuring, international structuring and estate and succession planning. In his capacity as a professional Accountant and as a personal interest, Michael undertakes various roles and responsibilities related to these areas.

When Michael is not attending to his Client’s needs, he enjoys travelling, tennis, AFL, the occasional property renovation project and spending time with his family.