Winter Feast, 25 August 2016

We were honoured to have fellow alumnus Mike Cannon-Brookes as our guest speaker at the annual Winter Feast, speaking on “The importance of the Australian diaspora to our future as a nimble, agile and innovative country”. The Winter Feast was held at the The Royal Sydney Golf Club, Kent Road, Rose Bay, on Thursday 25 August, 6.30 for 7.00pm. Guests enjoyed drinks, canapes and two course dinner. Mike Cannon-Brookes is a true citizen of the world, who has lived and worked in London, New York, Taipei, Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai and Sydney. With an MA in Law from Trinity Hall, Cambridge, his career has spanned 25 years as a banker with Citibank - he first came to Australia in 1984 to get a licence for Citibank and set up the bank here - 3 years as the first Managing Director of Freehills, and then 15 years with IBM mainly in senior strategy roles focused on the emerging markets. On retiring from IBM in 2012 he started his own consulting company, and was immediately appointed to the Board of Advance, the largest global network of high achieving Australians and alumni of Australian universities. Mike’s address was on “The importance of the Australian diaspora to our future as a nimble, agile and innovative country”. He explained how 5% of the human capital of this country is located offshore, and yet how this is a hugely under-utilised national resource. There is a vast network of talented Australians living overseas and working in the sciences, business, technology, sports and the arts, who are keen to keep professional connections with Australia, and have so much to offer in terms of helping Australians do business in a global world. He talked about how Advance has become Australia’s global innovation network, and a conduit for new ideas, innovation and intellectual property to flow back to Australia. This is why the Prime Minister agreed to become its Patron, since the diaspora can play such an important role in the National Innovation and Science initiative that he launched in December. Mike brough all this to life with several stories of Australians living overseas who, with awe inspiring talent and extraordinary vision, have achieved remarkable things in the world.