Inaugural awards highlight Australian university alumni

 

From Left to Right: Edward Smith, director of ACAA Geoff Raby, Australian Ambassador to China; Iain Watt, minister counselor; and Quentin Stevenson-Perks, counselor of education, Australian Embassy, at a press conference. Photo by Seppe Van Gricken

 

By Annie Wei

Last Saturday was the biggest night of the year for Chinese alumni of Australian universities. Graduates were recognized at the inaugural Australia China Alumni Awards at the Millennium Hotel Beijing. 

Eight awards were given away, including Australian Alumni of the Year, which went to Hui Wing Mau, also known as Xu Rongmao, chairman of Shimao Property and the country’s third richest man.

Thousands of Chinese students have studied in Australia since the 1970s and the Awards have brought some of their success stories to light. Among them are Media and ICT Award winner Jenny Zhu, who hosts ChinesePod’s online Chinese language-learning program; and Matthew Ng, founder and CEO of China’s third largest online travel company, who took home the Austrade Entrepreneurship Award.

Other winners include Qiao Luqiang, director of international arts cooperation at Beijing’s National Center for the Performing Arts; and Chao Zhao, deputy head of industrial design at Tsinghua University, who won the Qantas Reserch and Innovation award for achievements in his design career.

“[The awards] underline the central role being played in the development of the relationship between Australia and China, by both the alumni of Australia universities, of which we would hope to see more in the future, and by Australian alumni of Chinese universities as well,” said Rowan Callick, one of the judges and Asia Pacific editor of The Australian.

Sponsored by CPA Australia, the Awards also received support from the Australian government and business community, including ANZ Bank, Qantas Airways Limited and the Australian government agencies for development, trade and education.

Other finalists for Alumni of the Year included University of New South Wales (UNSW) graduate Shi Zhengrong, founder and chairman of Suntech Power; University of Western Australia’s Colin Giles, who, as okia China President has been credited with increasing the telecommunication giant’s market share in China to 40 percent; Asia Ray Group Founder and Chairman Vincent Lam, a graduate of both The University of Sydney and UNSW.

Vice President and Regional Compliance Officer with Siemens and Swinburne University of Technology graduate, Stefan Hoffman-Kuhnt; Macquarie (MGSM) graduate and Adidas regional head for north China Holly Li; and Kevin Wale, a graduate of The University of Melbourne and president and managing director of General Motors China Group.

Next year’s Awards ceremony will be held in the Australian Pavilion at the World Expo in Shanghai.

The Awards are an initiative of the Australia China Alumni Association (ACAA), a non-profit organization founded in 2007 and funded by 20 Australian Universities and several Australian government agencies. The ACAA, which has offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, aims to connect Australian university alumni across China with their universities and with each other. Alumni can register on the website to receive updates, event notices and news.  

The ACAA currently has 3,700 members representing about half of Australian universities. About 170 people were nominated for the awards.

The Australian government awards at least AU $40 million (254 million yuan) in scholarships to Asian students every year; a third goes to Chinese students. Australia’s education authority has also run an education program for Chinese government employees for the pst 30 years.