Alumni Council

Amanda Liu, Vice-Chair

Head of Communications, Credit Suisse China (MAppCom 2001)

Amanda Liu is the Head of Communications for Credit Suisse China. Prior to Credit Suisse, she was the Head of Corporate Communications for Morgan Stanley’s China joint venture. She is the former Head of Brand & Communications of BNP Paribas China. Before servicing financial institutions, she was the Head of Corporate Communications for eBay China during the rise of e-commerce. Amanda started her career in communications with Burson-Marsteller in 2003, servicing Fortune 500 clients by supporting their local relation building with government agencies and media. After B-M, she joined Ogilvy Group and led her team to build profile for the Group and its parent company, WPP, in China. As a marketing & communications veteran with 18 years experience, Amanda has helped dozens of multinational companies across industries with reputation management and brand building in China.

Matthew Wilson, Vice-Chair

Group General Manager - Strategy, Orora Group (BCom (Hons) 2000, LLB 2001)

Matthew joined Orora in January 2020, bringing over 20 years of experience in corporate finance and strategy. Immediately prior to Orora, Matthew was a Managing Director at independent corporate advisory firm, Flagstaff Partners, and previously spent 15 years at J.P. Morgan in both Melbourne and Sydney where he led the Australian investment banking division’s coverage of healthcare, telecommunications, technology, and private equity clients. Matthew began his professional career in the investment banking division of Macquarie Bank.
Over his career, Matthew has worked on numerous transactions across a variety of sectors including healthcare, telecommunications, media, business services, chemicals, consumer products, mining services, paper & packaging, transportation, building products and retail. He has worked on a broad range of transaction types including public and private treaty M&A, equity raisings (IPOs, entitlement offers, placements), and domestic and offshore debt raisings (investment and non-investment grade), as well as providing strategic advice to clients on growth strategy, capital management & allocation and shareholder activism.

In addition to his role on the Alumni Council, Matthew is a former Executive-in-Residence and current Honorary Fellow of the Department of Finance within the Faculty.

Ritu David, Member

Founder of the Data Duck and Alumbloom (BCom 2008)

Curiosity. This wonderful trait is the fuel of Ritu’s journey towards discovery and knowledge.

Growing up in 8 countries, Ritu was blessed with a wide array of experiences. She was on the Kenyan Swim Team and also led the country’s delegation to the Model United Nations in New York. Her craving for independence led her to leave home at 17 and move to Germany… without knowing German!

While studying Commerce at the University of Melbourne, Ritu started an NGO - Global Aid Partnerships. She worked in partnership with the UN, local government, the Australian Education Department and Maasai village elders to empower remote Kenya with its first community based pre-school curriculum.  After graduating, Ritu worked as a Policy Officer and Defence Economist in Federal Government. She contributed to Prime Ministerial level strategic decision making and was offered the opportunity to apply game theory to live Allied ops in Afghanistan. Ritu’s passion for data-led design led her to work as a digital strategist in Sydney before setting up her own digital design and development company in Mumbai, The Data Duck.

Today, Ritu leads a team of 60 people at The Data Duck and spends most of her days focusing on sales, design strategy and company culture. She is also on the boards of Red Dot Foundation, a data-led initiative to reduce the impact of sexual and gender-based violence globally and Lex Consellium, an organisation focused on raising awareness of the Indian constitution and constitutional rights.

Madeleine Grummet, Member

Investor Flying Fox Ventures, Entrepreneur + Media Contributor (MBS / FEB, MoE (Hons) 2016), VCC (2019)

Passionate about backing great founders building great companies and growing great teams, Madeleine Grummet is active across the Australian startup ecosystem as a venture investor (Flying Fox Ventures, Blackbird Giants, SheEO), award-winning entrepreneur, founder mentor and media contributor.

Mads started her career as a journalist with News Corp Australia, and continues to find voice and tell stories across platforms as a keynote speaker, writer, author and cohost of the top-rating Human Cogs podcast. Mads is also an inaugural member of the Startmate Media Fellowship 2022.

Mads holds multiple board and advisory positions, received the 2020 University of Melbourne Leadership Award, Victorian 2019 Tech Diversity Award (girledworld), is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, National Press Club, and First Class Honours graduate of Melbourne Business School's Master of Entrepreneurship (FBE 2016) and VC Catalyst (Venture Capital Investment Certification 2019) funded by Launch Vic.

But hands down her greatest achievements come from learning by doing; trying to human well; and remaining a forever apprentice to her four daughters, who keep her eyes firmly on the horizon.

Antoinette Nido, Member

Real Estate Consultant and Director, Chambria Property Trust (BCom 1984)

Antoinette Nido runs a successful Consulting practice buying and selling prestige property on behalf of blue chip clients in the Inner South East.
After graduating from the University of Melbourne in Commerce, Antoinette has held leading positions including Graduate Economist at Treasury and Tax Director at Ernst and Young where she advised multi-national clients on their Transfer Pricing Practices. She was a member of the Australian Taxation Liaison Advisory Committee advising the Government on the introduction of Transfer Pricing Rulings in Australia. Antoinette was a Board member of RMIT and Member of the Audit and Finance Committee. Currently she is a mentor in the Women’s Board Leadership Program run by Leadership Victoria of which she is a Fellow.
Antoinette was Managing Director of Chambria Property Trust which established, redeveloped and manages a prime inner city property portfolio on behalf of a private Superannuation Fund. Antoinette’s passion to help others benefit from her own experience as a Property Investor underpins her Consulting practice. Her high level negotiation skills, depth of experience and market knowledge are an asset to her clients.

Clement Peng, Member

Senior Compliance Manager, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (BCom 2007)

Clement was born and raised in China and moved to Australia during his teenage years. Whilst having a deep understanding of Chinese culture, Clement spent the most crucial years of his personal and professional life in Australia. He attended high school in Melbourne, and completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree majoring in Actuarial Studies at the University of Melbourne. Similar to most international students, Clement worked in several non-actuarial related jobs while awaiting his permanent resident visa. He later joined the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) as part of the graduate program in 2010. Whilst working at APRA, he has been involved in the general insurance, life insurance,  private health insurance and banking sectors, conducting financial analysis, risk management framework assessment, engagement with senior executives relating to strategy and risk governance, as well as liaising with domestic and international regulators. After ten years with the regulator, Clement decided to moved into the Banking industry and work in the regulatory compliance area. In his spare time, Clement has always been passionate about giving back to society and University. He was elected as a Committee member of the University Alumni Association – Sydney Branch in 2015 and joined the Faculty's Mentoring program to provide assistance and career guidance to fellow students. He has also been actively involved in a number of non-profit associations promoting Australia-China connections and participated in the Australia-China Youth Dialogue in 2018.

Kartik Iyer, Member

CFO, AbilityMade (BCom 2015)

Kartik graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting and Finance) in 2015. Since graduation he has become a strong advocate for the role business and finance needs to play in solving some of our most complex social and environmental challenges.

He is currently the CFO at AbilityMade, a social enterprise start-up that uses technology to empower children with disabilities. Outside of this he volunteers his time as a Non-Executive Director at Climate for Change and 100 Story Building.

During his studies, Kartik was heavily involved with the Melbourne Microfinance Initiative where he came to appreciate the importance of building an engaged alumni community.

Having joined the Young Alumni Committee (YAC) in 2017 he was humbled to be appointed as YAC President and Alumni Council Vice Chair in 2021.

Richard Hong, Member

Richard Hong is the senior director at PayPal with over 20 years of industry experience in technology and operation working across Australia and China. Prior to PayPal, Richard has worked in PwC consulting, IBM and a China local software start up company.
Currently based out of PayPal Shanghai office, Richard is responsible for the North Asia customer service operation. For the last 10 years, he has led numerous transformation projects across APAC and managed the customer service operation team to become a true customer centric organization.
Richard holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Science degree as well as Bachelor (Honors) of Information System from the University of Melbourne. Since graduation, Richard has maintained a strong tie with the University of Melbourne alumni community as one of the founding members of the Shanghai Alumni Association.

Nurul-Huda Mohamed Afandi, Member

Nurul is a Fellow Chartered Accountant (Australia), a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), and a Certified & Accredited Master Trainer. Upon graduating from the University of Melbourne, she began her career in KPMG’s Information Risk Management, before moving to Malaysia’s National Oil Company – PETRONAS’s Group Internal Audit. She also served on the Audit Committee of Malaysian Government Officers Cooperatives 2013-2014. She is now the Founder CEO of Thrift Consulting which provides training and consultancy for Government Agencies, SMEs, and Start-Ups specializing in IT projects and Digital Marketing. She has trained over 3,000 Malaysians to adopt digital marketing in their business and achieved MDEC’s Top eUsahawan Trainer Award in 2020 & 2021.

She volunteers her time to serve in various organizations as 2000-2001 President of Melbourne University Overseas Students Service (now known as UMSU International); as 2009-2013 Secretary of University of Melbourne Alumni Association in Malaysia (UMAA); 2013 President of JCI Petaling Jaya (JCIPJ); 2014 President of Commonwealth Alliance of Young Entrepreneurs Asia (CAYE-ASIA); as 2017 National President of JCI Malaysia (JCIM); 2018-2022 Vice President of  Malaysia Youth Council; and Chartered Accountant Australia and New Zealand (CAANZ) Regional Councillor 2020-2022. She currently led several JCIM Taskforces - Structure Review, Awards Judges & Secretariat.

In recognition of her years of voluntary service, she was awarded the prestigious Selangor Youth Service Medal 2022, JCI Ten Outstanding Young Malaysian Award 2019, and National Premier Youth Award 2015 by the Ministry of Youth and Sports, presented by the Prime Minister of Malaysia. She has also won numerous awards namely the JCIM Inspiring Trainer Award (2018), Most Outstanding Local President of JCI Malaysia in 2013, Most Outstanding Member at JCI Asia Pacific level in 2013, Most Outstanding Member of JCI PJ and JCI Malaysia in 2012 and Most Outstanding Board of Director of JCI PJ in 2011.