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Julian Lorkin
UNSW Business School media
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UNSW Business School has appointed five Professors of Practice as part of a Faculty-wide strategy to embed industry experience within the curriculum.

The goal is to create an environment where students can develop high-level management skills and practical abilities which can be translated into closer links with industry. 

UNSW Professors of Practice will work alongside outstanding academics who are international leaders in their fields.

The Professors of Practice are generally senior executives who have led successful businesses, government agencies, industry bodies or not-for-profit organisations, or those who are company directors.

Professor Chris Styles, Dean of UNSW Business School, says their practical and policy knowledge will advance the University's research and teaching, as part of the university-wide Strategy 2025.

“They are highly motivated to bring their experiences and expertise into our classrooms, and to influence and shape our research agenda,” Professor Styles said.

“We aim to engage even more with industry and government, both in Australia and internationally, and these appointments will help us do so.

“It's a great privilege to have such a high calibre of professionals join UNSW Business School.”

The new Professors of Practice are:

Nicolas Chu

Nicolas Chu has extensive experience in managing technology businesses, from startups to large corporates in Europe, the US and Asia Pacific. He is CEO and founder of Sinorbis, an international business that aims to revolutionise the way companies and organisations enter the Chinese market through technology. He is an active investor (seed and early stage deals) and serves as a board director of several companies and organisations. 

Elaine Collins

Elaine Collins has more than 25 years’ experience in the insurance industry, with a focus on strategic risk to company operations. She served as a partner of Deloitte, leading the general insurance actuarial team over a six-year period providing consulting services. She is currently a Non-Executive Director of Zurich Insurance and the Motor Accidents Insurance Board and a Board Member of Australian Reinsurance Pool Corporation. She also chairs two audit and risk committees.

Jennifer Granger

Jennie Granger has been leading complex transformational change in the public sector for over 25 years in Australia and most recently in the UK. She returned to Australia in 2017 after five years as a Commissioner and Director General at Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs where she led the transformation of Customer Compliance (28,000 staff) whilst doubling compliance revenues. Previously she was a Second Commissioner at the ATO, its most senior woman leader. She is also a leading technical expert on tax and regulatory compliance strategy.

Peter Leonard

Peter Leonard is a business lawyer who has focused upon advising data-driven businesses. This work has spanned mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, data commercialisation, information governance, data protection, protection of trade secrets and competition law. He is on many advisory and other boards, including the NSW Data Analytics Centre and several medtechs, and chairs the AI Ethics Advisory Committee of the Australian Computer Society and the data work-stream of the IoT Alliance Australia.

Su-Ming Wong

Su-Ming Wong is a director of Scentia, and Lorna Jane which sits within CHAMP Ventures, a leading Australian mid-market private equity funds manager with over $750 million under management. Su-Ming co-founded CHAMP Ventures in 2001 and has been chairman/director of more than 20 of its portfolio companies. Su-Ming has been strongly committed to supporting innovation. He was instrumental in setting up AMWIN Innovation Fund, one of Australia's most successful venture capital funds. He is also an active Angel Investor with investments in several young innovative Australian startups including Redbubble and Tyro.