Cranfield Australian Alumni(breadcrumbs are unavailable)

2023 – Alumni Meetup Sydney & Melbourne July 12th & 18th

Dear Cranfield Alumnus,

Details of our first events for 2023 (post the Covid hiatus) are below. We hope you can make one event or the other.

Regards,

Alexandra Chapman and Alex White



MELBOURNE MEETUP
Date: Wednesday 12th July
from 5.30 pm to 7.30 pm-ish.
Where: Carbine Bar, RACV City Club, 501 Bourke St, Melbourne.
Map details: https://bit.ly/2muRqOM  

Contact: Alexandra Chapman +61 411 519 445 alex_chapman@cranfieldalumni.org.au

Additional info: Mention that you are attending the Alumni function, and the front door staff will direct you. I need to sign in all guests, so please RSVP (or text if you are late starter)

SYDNEY MEETUP
Date: Tuesday 18th July 2023

from 6 pm to 8 pm-ish. 
Where: The Establishment, 252 George St, Sydney.

Map details: https://bit.ly/2muQNoo

Contact: Alex White ‭+61 478 013 325‬
alex_white@cranfieldalumni.org.au.

Additional info: Meet at the very back section of the ground floor bar. 

 


Cranfield Australian Alumni(breadcrumbs are unavailable)

2019 Cranfield Australian Alumni Update

Mahesh Roy Twelve Scholar 2019

Dear All,

This is the first time that we have done an Alumni update since 2016…

There are reasons for that – which I will mention later. Ever since we started our Australian Alumni Scholarship in 2005, our desired outcomes have been simple: to find outstanding and talented Australians for our Scholarship and to create an Alumni community which is lively and meaningful.

Last year, 2017, we got the Eleventh Scholarship “landed” against all the odds. But on our second outcome, to grow a “vibrant” alumni community, there is still work to be done.   Behind the scenes, there is much solid progress and I feel optimistic that the next twelve months will see this payoff.

The Twelth Scholarship 2019

We were delighted to award the Twelfth Cranfield Australian Alumni Scholarship to Mahesh Roy, an outstanding mechanical engineer whose day-to-day responsibilities included working in remote mining sites maintaining large-scale mining gear. Every year, we are always thrilled to find a great winner and 2017 was no exception. You can read more about Susan and the other two finalists Vedran Azman and Ganesh Mane here

2017 was the first time ever that our patron John McFarlane (MBA 1975) was not able to travel from the UK to attend the Award. John has been at every Award presentation for ten years and he was greatly missed.  So, we did something different and fitting, by calling on past Scholars to play a key part in the evening. Damini Arora, 2009 Scholar, presented the award to Susan.  Lily Rattray, 2015 Scholar was Master of Ceremonies for the evening. The dinner was held at the Park Hyatt, Melbourne and the last few alumni were still there around 2am-ish. It was a great evening!

The Twelfth Scholarship 2018

We have two (possibly three) excellent candidates for the Scholarship – more details will come about those shortly.

This year we are breaking with past traditions to hold the award event as a Cocktail Reception at Pier One on Sydney Harbour. This year, our Scholarship Award coincides with Sydney’s VIVID – a festival of light and music – so we will have this as the spectacular backdrop to our Alumni Scholarship celebrations.

It will be a fantastic night and you can see the programme and book by clicking the link here.

A separate email with booking details has been sent out. Please share this with all Cranfield and Shrivenham alumni you are in contact with, to make sure we don’t miss anyone.

The 2018 Scholarship Award will be held on Monday 4th June 2018 in Sydney at Pier One, Sydney Harbour.

Other news

Thus far, our tally of talented beneficiaries stands at twenty. You can see all of our beneficiaries on the Honour Roll here. We also have a huge announcement to make:

Through the efforts of Prof. David Corkindale, and with the support of Cranfield University, we have established a new Scholarship to be offered jointly with The Sir John Monash Foundation.

This scholarship will allow talented Australians access to all the other Schools and courses at Cranfield University and will support our MBA Scholarship activities to create even greater opportunities for talented Australians to benefit from the Cranfield Experience.

Finally, in the background, we are working with Cranfield University and the Alumni Office on ways to reduce the administrative workload for the Scholarship so that we can focus our time and efforts on building a lively the Alumni community here.

Alexandra Chapman  (MBA 1988) | Vice President
on behalf of the Board of the Cranfield Australian Alumni Scholarship Foundation.

Alex Headshot

PS. Some of you may be aware that a few days after the Award Dinner in May 2016,  Jed Simms my husband was diagnosed with lymphoma and that he died after a very short illness. I mention this simply by way of explanation for why not much has happened with Alumni events recently. But I keep reminding myself of that Buddhist saying, “If you are facing the right way – all you have to do is keep walking”.


You are receiving this because you have your details as a Cranfield Alumnus on our Scholarship database. To unsubscribe, please contact us here.

Cranfield Australian Alumni(breadcrumbs are unavailable)

2018 Cranfield Australian Alumni Update | Alex Chapman Vice-President

cranfield alumni
Dear All,

This is the first time that we have done an Alumni update since 2016…

There are reasons for that – which I will mention later. Ever since we started our Australian Alumni Scholarship in 2005, our desired outcomes have been simple: to find outstanding and talented Australians for our Scholarship and to create an Alumni community which is lively and meaningful.

Last year, 2017, we got the Eleventh Scholarship “landed” against all the odds. But on our second outcome, to grow a “vibrant” alumni community, there is still work to be done.   Behind the scenes, there is much solid progress and I feel optimistic that the next twelve months will see this payoff.

The Eleventh Scholarship 2017

We were delighted to award the Eleventh Cranfield Australian Alumni Scholarship to Susan Kennedy, an outstanding mechanical engineer whose day-to-day responsibilities included working in remote mining sites maintaining large-scale mining gear. Every year, we are always thrilled to find a great winner and 2017 was no exception. You can read more about Susan and the other two finalists Vedran Azman and Ganesh Mane here

2017 was the first time ever that our patron John McFarlane (MBA 1975) was not able to travel from the UK to attend the Award. John has been at every Award presentation for ten years and he was greatly missed.  So, we did something different and fitting, by calling on past Scholars to play a key part in the evening. Damini Arora, 2009 Scholar, presented the award to Susan.  Lily Rattray, 2015 Scholar was Master of Ceremonies for the evening. The dinner was held at the Park Hyatt, Melbourne and the last few alumni were still there around 2am-ish. It was a great evening!

The Twelfth Scholarship 2018

We have two (possibly three) excellent candidates for the Scholarship – more details will come about those shortly.

This year we are breaking with past traditions to hold the award event as a Cocktail Reception at Pier One on Sydney Harbour. This year, our Scholarship Award coincides with Sydney’s VIVID – a festival of light and music – so we will have this as the spectacular backdrop to our Alumni Scholarship celebrations.

It will be a fantastic night and you can see the programme and book by clicking the link here.

A separate email with booking details has been sent out. Please share this with all Cranfield and Shrivenham alumni you are in contact with, to make sure we don’t miss anyone.

The 2018 Scholarship Award will be held on Monday 4th June 2018 in Sydney at Pier One, Sydney Harbour.

Other news

Thus far, our tally of talented beneficiaries stands at twenty. You can see all of our beneficiaries on the Honour Roll here. We also have a huge announcement to make:

Through the efforts of Prof. David Corkindale, and with the support of Cranfield University, we have established a new Scholarship to be offered jointly with The Sir John Monash Foundation.

This scholarship will allow talented Australians access to all the other Schools and courses at Cranfield University and will support our MBA Scholarship activities to create even greater opportunities for talented Australians to benefit from the Cranfield Experience.

Finally, in the background, we are working with Cranfield University and the Alumni Office on ways to reduce the administrative workload for the Scholarship so that we can focus our time and efforts on building a lively the Alumni community here.

Alexandra Chapman  (MBA 1988) | Vice President
on behalf of the Board of the Cranfield Australian Alumni Scholarship Foundation.

Alex Headshot


PS. Some of you may be aware that a few days after the Award Dinner in May 2016,  Jed Simms my husband was diagnosed with lymphoma and that he died after a very short illness. I mention this simply by way of explanation for why not much has happened with Alumni events recently. But I keep reminding myself of that Buddhist saying, “If you are facing the right way – all you have to do is keep walking”.


You are receiving this because you have your details as a Cranfield Alumnus on our Scholarship database. To unsubscribe, please contact us here.

Cranfield Australian Alumni(breadcrumbs are unavailable)

2017 Annual Report

The 2017 Annual report is available here.

Cranfield Australian Alumni(breadcrumbs are unavailable)

2016 Annual Report

The 2016 Annual report is available here.  CAASF 2016 Annual Report v5 FINAL

Cranfield Australian Alumni(breadcrumbs are unavailable)

Monday, June 19 2017, Cranfield Australian Alumni Scholarship dinner, Melbourne

banner-photo

Please save the date – Monday 19 June 2017

to celebrate Cranfield Australian Alumni Scholarship Foundation’s eleventh annual award please join us at:

Park Hyatt, 1 Parliament Square, Melbourne on Monday 19 June 2017.

This year, it is Melbourne’s turn to host the annual scholarship dinner. We will share details of the AGM, speaker and programme of events in the next few days.

This year in order to reduce the ticket price (after feedback from alumni attending in prior years) we have altered the dinner arrangements to include a welcoming glass of bubbles, canapés and two course dinner. You may choose and pay for your own wine over dinner. This significantly reduces the cost of the evening for everyone and allows those who wish to choose the wine they prefer.

The award dinner will be a great event and we look forward to seeing you there.

An update on the Scholarship and Alumni matters

We are delighted to have three candidates in the pipeline for our eleventh Cranfield Australian Alumni Scholarship, 2017. We are in the final stages of interviews to select this year’s winner.

Our Tenth Scholarship winner in 2016 – Andrew Smith – was another in the ever lengthening line of outstanding and talented Australians, bringing to nineteen our tally of winners and finalists who have studied at Cranfield through the efforts of the Australian alumni.

Every year since 2005, when we started our journey to build the Australian Cranfield alumni community through our scholarship activities, we have made steady progress. Each year, the volunteers who have given their time to the Foundation have tackled different projects: from building relationships with key C-level executives who can direct talented Australians towards our Scholarship, to finding all the Australian-based alumni from all Cranfield schools to include in our community.

2016 was very different

In any voluntary organisation, the rubber hits the road only when people put the hours and slog into getting things done. Last year, due to all manner of personal and professional stresses, our nine man Board of hard-working volunteers was effectively reduced to two and a bit – who then had to carry the load for all. Somehow though, enabled by the excellent processes we set up all those years ago, with some dogged slog from the few, and with Alumni (including our Patron John McFarlane) pitching in to help, we managed to get the year done.

Unquestionably some things we normally do went by the wayside: our usual efforts with keeping in contact with you all, organising alumni get-togethers and events and promoting the Cranfield brand, to name a few. In the background, we have continued to link to all Cranfield Alumni on LinkedIn. This means that all Australian Alumni are no further than a second connection away from each other. We have also made progress to finding the long term solution to setting our Scholarship on a sustainable basis – both for administration and fundraising.

What keeps us focused

We aim to create a vibrant Australian Alumni community and to make our Scholarship the pre-eminent one for the development of leadership and management skills for talented Australians who are passionate about this country and want to contribute to its future.

I look forward to seeing you in a few weeks at the AGM and Award dinner.

Details and booking form to be available on 20 May. 

alex short signature

Alex Headshot
Alexandra Chapman  (MBA 1988) | Vice President
on behalf of the Board of the Cranfield Australian Alumni Scholarship Foundation.

 


You are receiving this because you have your details as a Cranfield Alumnus on our Scholarship database. To unsubscribe, please contact us here.

Cranfield Australian Alumni(breadcrumbs are unavailable)

Tenth Annual CAASF Scholarship Appeal

Cranfield VC, Board & 2015 Finalists

Tenth Annual CAASF Scholarship Appeal

2016 marks our Tenth Scholarship Award.

The Award provides a scholarship to Cranfield for their one-year MBA programme and a cash component by the Australian alumni towards the cost of travelling to Cranfield in the UK, and accommodation whilst there.

The full list is here  at www.cranfieldalumni.org.au/scholarship-foundation-honour-roll

What’s behind the Award?

It’s the idea that the MBA programme at Cranfield will provide leadership skills to the winners who will return to Australia and contribute to its future. With the evolution of the scholarship, there is also the need to renew and refresh CAASF and we now expect the returning winners to take a role on the board. By the way, all board roles are voluntary.

What got us here?

It was a combination of ideas from Cranfield School of Management and some local Cranfield alumni, the financial support of our patron in the early years and of the broader alumni community in the later years. It was also a dedicated team of local alumni who have organised the whole process over those ten years.

Why are we writing to you?

Because we need your help. Alumni have served on the board and have contributed funds to CAASF. This has been done on an as-needed basis, typical of running a lean organisation! What we want to achieve for the future is a growing endowment so that we can plan the scholarship with greater confidence, and smooth the amount of funds that we award the winner each year.

Over the near future, we wish to raise $100,000. Contributions may take several forms: individual donations, regular donations, matched-giving programmes, paid adverts on our website or, in the longer-term, legacies.

Why are we firstly asking you?

Well, you have contributed in the past and we hope you will consider making a contribution on our tenth anniversary to support the future of the scholarship.

If you do choose to help us by making a contribution, please go to the Donate page on our website:

www.cranfieldalumni.org.au/welcome/donate  and select the option you prefer. You can do this easily by credit card, cheque or EFT.

If you would rather first discuss your contribution with one of the board, please call:

Graham Baws on     0417 901 875 (WA)

Alex Chapman on    0411 519 445 (VIC)

Steve Wood on        0424 325 763 (VIC & TAS)

John Hosie on         0406 591 939 (NSW)

As a board, we are optimistic about the future of CAASF and want you to be part of that future. Your help with this fundraising will underscore that future.

 

Graham Baws

Treasurer

Cranfield Australian Alumni Scholarship Foundation Inc

Cranfield Australian Alumni(breadcrumbs are unavailable)

2015 Reflections on a decade of effort for our Cranfield Australian Alumni Scholarship

winners-large-1200x400-2015Dear All,

How our Cranfield Scholarship started…

Our journey started in November 2005, when we received an email from Cranfield School of Management, offering a Scholarship place for the MBA programme aimed at increasing the number of Australians on the MBA.

That email triggered a thought process – perhaps we could use such a scholarship to address issues facing our Australian Cranfield alumni, namely:

  • Diversity in age, interests and experience and limited alumni numbers spread around the continent made it challenging to create a vibrant and meaningful alumni community;
  • Almost no community activities, apart from events organised by School of Management alumni in Melbourne and the occasional drinks with visiting faculty in Sydney;
  • Non-existent recognition of Cranfield and the value and quality of its education in Australia;
  • A large body of alumni – almost 1000 in Australia as we subsequently discovered – who shared and benefited greatly from their “Cranfield experience” but who had little reason or opportunity to come together;
  • Little engagement between alumni and the University once their studies were completed and limited contact information apart from the Cranfield Management Alumni database.

When the opportunity came, it meant that:

  • A scholarship could provide a catalyst to build an Australian alumni community with a unifying purpose;
  • We could use the scholarship to attract talented Australians to Cranfield;
  • We could grow the reputation of the Australian Cranfield alumni and to mutual benefit, awareness of Cranfield University and the School of Management as well.

This would create a virtuous cycle.


“We alumni are the beginning and end of a virtuous cycle in which

excellence and diversity in the student body leads to increased richness and quality of learning;

which in turn feeds the success of the graduates and Cranfield University as an academic institution;

and then delivers a stronger and more vibrant alumni community to act as role models to attract more outstanding students.”


A piece of cake really…

Except, for a group of volunteers, the workload was (and still is) enormous. A small group of alumni came together to tackle it, just like a WAC. We went back to basics in terms of how we built the end-to-end processes to find talented candidates, select the winner and the many things required to support our endeavours.

From our Inaugural Scholarship awarded in 2007 we have:blues_brothers

  • Created our scholarship for “leadership and management development for talented Australians who are passionate about Australia and want to contribute to its future” and awarded nine Scholarships;
  • Started to grow a purposeful and welcoming community for alumni of all Schools;
  • Built a pipeline to find talented Australians and show them how the Cranfield experience can accelerate their professional and personal development;
  • Established relationships with organisations who could spread the word about our scholarship to their talented employees;
  • Held numerous alumni events and nine gala award dinners;
  • Sent eighteen talented Aussies to Cranfield and with several more likely this year;
  • Defined our ethos as “pay it forward” to encourage beneficiaries to actively support the Foundation and ensure it will strengthen and grow into the future;
  • Influenced Cranfield University to appreciate the value of the alumni community and then supported its efforts to rebuild engagement with the international alumni community;
  • Located alumni based in Australia by referral and through LinkedIn;
  • Increased awareness of the Cranfield brand and reputation in Australia.

Where to now?

Over the past ten years, we have met many of the alumni through the events that we have held. One thing has become clear – we may be small in number, but we certainly “punch above our weight.” Indeed, Cranfield alumni in Australia hold positions of influence across a diverse range of industries and organisations.

Simply put, Cranfield alumni make a difference.

So, the next phase of our evolution will most likely centre on:

  • Supporting efforts to launch the Cranfield Trust, which can provide a vehicle for alumni to contribute their time and skills to valuable and worthwhile causes (more about this to come);
  • Expanding our scholarship activities with Cranfield’s support to other Schools & programmes of the University;
  • Increasing the number of indigenous Australians in our pipeline;
  • Continuing to strengthen our community with the support of Cranfield University;
  • Continuing to grow the reputation of Cranfield alumni in Australia.

Meanwhile Cranfield University continues on its own journey of transformation, strengthening the institution and the Schools academically, building brand reputation and engaging with the alumni community.

All of these activities will take (perhaps) another few years.

There is a Buddhist saying “When you are facing the right way, all you have to do is walk.” It’s our view that the University, the Schools and the alumni are now all facing the right way. And, all we have to do is continue on our journey.

So, the question for all of you is…

How would you like to contribute and shape the future of the Cranfield alumni in Australia?

We would greatly welcome your thoughts & feedback by return email or by posting to the LinkedIn discussion here.

Regards

alex short signature

Alexandra Chapman

Cranfield Alumni International President for Australia


PS A reminder to book for the Brisbane and Melbourne Alumni events | Tuesday 22 March & Wednesday 23 March

Click here to RSVP (there is no charge for the events)

 

Cranfield Australian Alumni(breadcrumbs are unavailable)

2016 Alumni Update (my last as President)

Cranfield VC, Board & 2015 Finalists

Dear All,

2015 was a year of projects and progress for the Cranfield Australian Alumni Scholarship Foundation (CAASF).

Scholarship and Alumni update

The Award dinner for the Ninth Scholarship was held at The Hotel Windsor in Melbourne on 11 May 2015 and was attended as always by John McFarlane our Patron. This year we also were fortunate to host Cranfield University’s Vice Chancellor, Sir Peter Gregson, and faculty members Simon Pollard, Elise Cartmell, Graham Braithwaite, and Debi Ashenden.

Organising events in Melbourne and Sydney and liaising with media to gain coverage of the faculty visit were hugely demanding undertakings as this year we were also especially busy with the scholarship selection. We upgraded our candidate interview process and had more candidates to interview than ever before at the final stages.

The President’s Lunches in February 2015 were hosted in Melbourne & Sydney and continued our process of relationship building, with a focus on CSIRO, indigenous organisations and Engineers Australia, with the aim of making sure that our pipeline of talent continues to grow.

The result was that we sent 3 students to Cranfield; a wonderful winner in Lily Rattray and finalists Claire Dyason and Paul Lamprecht who were offered part Scholarships.

Other progress

  • The visit from Sir Peter Gregson and faculty underlined the importance of the Australian alumni to Cranfield and the model that we have created here. We note that even our chosen word ‘community’ to describe ourselves has crept into the University’s lexicon;
  • Development of Cranfield’s new brand communications is almost complete – we have seen the drafts and feel that you will be very pleased with the results;
  • The School of Management’s rankings continue to improve;
  • We continue the process of connecting with Australian Alumni to include them in our community.

It would be fair to say that projects consumed the bulk of the Board’s energy and attention has been somewhat less on the day-to-day tasks of alumni events and communications. This is something we intend to focus on this year.

And lastly …

We are seeking a new President for the Foundation. After many years in Australia with RBS, and more than 3 years as President of CAASF, for family reasons I have recently returned to the UK. This creates an opportunity for a Cranfield alumnus to take on the role of President and to work with the established board. We are also seeking alumni for Board member roles.

Whilst the Board presently comprises mainly School of Management alumni (who were instrumental in setting up the scholarship), the new President could be someone from any part of Cranfield. The main requirement is someone who has the time, enthusiasm and energy to devote to the role. In particular, now that we have established the pipeline of talented candidates, the Board focus will be on financial and operational sustainability.

If you wish to indicate your interest, or to suggest someone who you believe fills the bill, please make contact with us via the contact form here.

Finally, I have greatly enjoyed my time as President and am proud of what our Alumni Scholarship has achieved. We are well on the way to making ours the pre-eminent scholarship for the development of leadership and management skills for talented Australians who are passionate about Australia and want to contribute to its future.

I hope to see you all in May at the Award dinner when I handover the baton to the new President.

Stephen Williams (MBA1993)

Stephen Williams  (MBA 1993) | President
on behalf of the Board of the Cranfield Australian Alumni Scholarship Foundation.

 

 

 

 


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Cranfield Australian Alumni(breadcrumbs are unavailable)

Victorian Cranfield & Shrivenham Alumni get-together

on date TBC at the Deakin UniversityL 3, 550 Bourke Street, Melbourne CBD. We look forward to seeing you there.