Melbourne Commencement Ceremonies

Guest speakers

There will be a guest speaker presentation tailored to your faculty at each Ceremony. Guest speakers are all University of Melbourne alumni who represent excellence and leadership in their respective fields. Select your course below to find out more.

• Bachelor of Commerce

  Jenny Macklin

  

  Jenny graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) from the University of Melbourne and is currently a Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow at the University in the School of Government.

  Prior to this, she served 23 years as the Federal Member for Jagajaga.

  Jenny was the longest serving woman in the House of Representatives, and was the first woman to become the Deputy Leader of a major Australian political party. She was the Deputy Leader of the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party from 2001-2006 and Senior Vice President of the Australian Labor Party. Jenny served as the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and the Minister for Disability Reform in the Rudd and Gillard Labor Governments.

  As Minister, she oversaw the Apology to the Stolen Generations and development of the Closing the Gap framework, the introduction of Australia’s first National Paid Parental Leave Scheme, delivered the largest increase to the Pension in the history of the payment, was responsible for the design and implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme and was an integral part of the establishment of the Royal Commission in to Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. She was a member of the Expenditure Review Committee of Cabinet in Government and Opposition for 20 years.

  Dean Magee

  

  Dean graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce and a Master of Economics from the University of Melbourne. He went on to become an Eric and Wendy Schmidt Data Science Fellow at the University of Chicago.

  After returning to Melbourne, he worked at Geografia, and went on to develop the industry award winning Spendmapp app which is used by governments around Australia to tackle local and regional economic challenges, such as the current bushfire crisis and the recovery.  In his current position as Chief Data Scientist at Geografia, he continues to work at the intersection of Data and Public Policy and is leading the growth of Spendmapp in the UK and South American Markets.

• Bachelor of Science

  Anthony Boxshall

  Anthony graduated from his Honours degree in Science in 1990 and finished his PhD at the University of Melbourne in 1996.

  He is a marine ecologist who has worked in Australia and the USA across Government, academia and private industry and is a qualified Board Director who has worked on a number of research and Government Boards.

  Anthony is also the Inaugural Chair of the Victorian Marine & Coastal Council, and the valedictory Chair of the Victorian Coastal Council. He currently works as the Principal and Founder of Science into Action, a science impact company. As a former National President of the Australian Marine Sciences Association, Australia's peak professional marine science body, he ran the science part of the Environment Protection Authority in Victoria.

  He is a founding member and Producer/Presenter of Australia’s most successful marine and coastal radio program, the award-winning Radio Marinara on 3RRR-FM. As a current Melbourne Enterprise Fellow in the School of Biosciences at the University of Melbourne, Anthony works on increasing the uptake of good environment and climate science into decision-making.

• Bachelor of Arts

  Jirra Harvey

  Koorie woman, adventurer and strategist, Jirra Lulla Harvey provides an optimistic vision for the future of Aboriginal entrepreneurship. She explores the intersection of technology and First Nations knowledge and believes in the potential for Indigenous design principles to drive innovation strategy.

  Jirra is the Manager of Indigenous Entrepreneurship and Innovation at RMIT University where she has created the Ngamai Program. This is an experimental platform for purpose-led Aboriginal founders, working across technology, food, fashion and design to enact Aboriginal cultural values of caring for land, people and community. Her business, Kalinya Communications, was one of Australia’s first Aboriginal owned communications consultancies.

  Jirra believes Aboriginal ways of working translate into powerful business acumen for a changing economy. She has travelled the world learning from First Nations led solutions in education, tourism, and wellness. With connections across business, government and investment, Jirra brings an Indigenous lens to global issues such as climate change and ethical supply chain. She is a diversity advisor to a Venture Capital Firm and sits on the Small Business Ministerial Council and Aboriginal Economic Development Board. Jirra’s family have played an instrumental role in the establishment of Aboriginal community-controlled organisations and she was encouraged to take on a leadership role at a young age. At 18 she was awarded a Centenary Medal for creative contributions to Australian Society.

  Jirra was the Inaugural Indigenous Arts Leadership Fellow at the National Gallery of Australia, worked at the Venice Biennale for Tracey Moffatt’s ground-breaking exhibition and sits on the Board for the Melbourne International Film Festival.

• Bachelor of Design

  Abbie Freestone

  Abbie studied a Bachelor of Environments with a major in Urban Design and Town Planning at the University of Melbourne.

  A passionate urbanist and environmentalist, Abbie currently works with Assemble as the Head of Community where she helped launch the ‘Assemble Model’ — a new pathway to home ownership that bridges the gap between renting and owning a home.

  Prior to Assemble, Abbie spent time living in North America, where she worked with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) in San Francisco — one of the largest and most influential architecture, interior design, engineering, and urban planning firms in the world. Here, she gained experience in architectural communications, marketing and international business development. Before SOM, Abbie was the Communications Manager of CHT Architects based in Melbourne.
  
  Abbie is also the founder and editor of Affix Magazine, which she ran for three years before joining Assemble. Affix was an independent publication and digital media platform orientated around urban design, city planning, diverse culture and sustainable development.
  
  Abbie's passion lies in research, communication and design with an emphasis on sustainability, user experience and community-building. With a range of experience in the AEC industry to the world of independent publishing, Abbie is committed to uncovering new ways of thinking about cities, sustainable development and the increasing role that media plays within the built environment.

• Bachelor of Biomedicine and Bachelor of Oral Health

  Bronwyn King

  Dr Bronwyn King is a social entrepreneur, movement maker, medical specialist and globally renowned humanitarian on a mission to inspire and transform organisations into purpose driven, sustainable businesses.

  Tobacco Free Portfolios, a global advocacy organisation she founded, has redefined finance industry standards. In 2018, Bronwyn took to the stage at the United Nations in New York to launch ‘The Tobacco Free Finance Pledge’, a global initiative she led, which now has more than 120 Signatories – global financial institutions with combined assets under management of > $US 7.5 trillion (AU $10 trillion).

  As a doctor, Bronwyn has worked with everyone from the terminally ill to the fittest athletes in the Australian Swim Team. As a global change-maker she meets with world leaders across the corporate, finance, health and diplomatic sectors. This has provided unique insights into universal power structures – what works, what doesn’t and how to sidestep ‘the impossible’.

  Bronwyn is a leader, influencer and future thinker who has mastered the art of translating a simple idea into a global movement. She has been recognised with countless awards. Most notably, she was awarded an Order of Australia (AO) in 2019 for distinguished service to community health and named 2019 Melburnian of the Year.

• Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Music

  Sally Smart

  Sally is one of Australia’s leading contemporary artists, recognised internationally for large-scale cut-out assemblage installations and increasingly, performance and video, her practice engages identity politics and the relationships between the body, thought and culture including trans-national ideas that have shaped cultural history.

  The recipient of numerous awards and prizes, Smart is currently a Vice-Chancellor’s Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne, a board member (Deputy Chair) of the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) and was awarded an Australia Council Fellowship in 2014. She was also an Artist-in Residence at the University of Connecticut, USA in 2012 and a Board member of the Council of Trustees, National Gallery of Victoria, Australia during 2001-2008. Sally was recently appointed to the Council of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

  Sally Smart’s recent exhibitions include:

  • Manifesto, Kayu Lucie Fontaine Setia Darma The House of Mask and Puppets, Ubud, Indonesia (2019)
  • The Violet Ballet, Adelaide Festival Ace Open, Adelaide, Australia (2019)
  • NGAPlay (Interactive project), National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia (2018-19)
  • The Choreography of Cutting, Postmasters ROMA, Rome, Italy (2017)
  • The Choreography of Cutting, Office For Contemporary Art (OFCA) International, Yogyakarta, Indonesia (2017)
  • Staging the Studio, Margaret Lawrence Gallery,  University of Melbourne, Australia (2017)
  • Vestibule Commission, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia (2017)
  • The Choreography of Cutting, Postmasters Gallery, New York, USA (2016)
  • Odyssey: Navigating Nameless Seas, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore (2016)
  • Conversation: Endless Acts of Human History (with Entang Wiharso), Galeri Nasional Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia (2016)
  • Dark Heart: 2014 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia (2014)
  • Negotiating This World, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia (2013)
  • The Pedagogical Puppet, Contemporary Galleries, University of Connecticut, CT., USA (2012)
  • Contemporary Australia: Women, Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), Brisbane, Australia (2012).
• Bachelor of Agriculture

  Amy Bellhouse

  Amy graduated with a Bachelor of Agricultural Science (Honours) and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Melbourne, and is currently studying a Master of Competition and Consumer Law through the Melbourne Law School part-time.

  Amy has worked in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors and is passionate about the significance of Australia’s agricultural industries and their importance to local communities and global trade. Through her work experience on a mixed sheep and cropping property and then in the dairy genetics industry, Amy gained important practical background at the same time as her qualifications.

  Amy went on to work in the grain and pulse industry across procurement, processing and international trade before a career change saw her move into market analytics, firstly in grain and livestock, and then for the national service body in the dairy industry. Today she applies her varied expertise in agricultural supply chains as a Director in the Agriculture Unit at the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC), examining competition and unfair trading issues in the agricultural industries.