The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology’s (RMIT) Online university has announced two new hires to its growing leadership team.
The appointments mark a new phase of growth for the university’s technology, introducing two new cloud computing courses, in conjunction with Amazon Web Services (AWS).
One of the new hires, Professor Claire Macken – who joins to lead the online school’s Future Learning as the Director of Future Learning – was most recently a Director in KPMG’s Higher Education practice, where she will provide academic thought leadership to support RMIT Online’s transformative learning experiences for students.
Professor Macken will also work closely with RMIT University to achieve quality across RMIT Online’s Future Skills and Academic portfolios to effectively bring innovative programs of consistently high standards to the university’s lifelong learning community.
Professor Macken’s appointment adds to an already impressive resume, having previously held prominent roles such as Apple’s Higher Education Lead and Industry Manager for Australia and New Zealand.
She has also held several University roles, including Associate Head of the Law School at Deakin University in addition to her roles as the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Innovation and Future Learning) and Director of Online and Blended Learning at La Trobe University.
Also joining RMIT Online’s leadership team is Narelle Stefanac, who will become Director of Growth.
Stefanac’s education experience spans 20 years, during which time she has overseen strategic sales and business development roles at companies such as SEEK, Laureate International Universities and, most recently, LinkedIn where she led the Learning and Development Strategy Consultants.
In her role, Stefanac will help the online university continue to scale sales and marketing capabilities by leading the B2B and industry partner efforts.
Helen Souness, CEO of RMIT Online, said the changes to the growing leadership team will help the online education provider enter its next phase of growth under their guidance and combined expertise navigating conversations across the technology and business sectors.
“Our mission remains to build a community of lifelong learners successfully navigating the world of work,” Souness said.
“We are so thrilled to welcome both Claire and Narelle to work alongside our growing team of exceptional leaders to fulfil our mission and strive to build impactful courses to help address critical skills gap across Australia and beyond.”
Souness said this “new chapter” in RMIT Online’s leadership history will see the university continue to deliver innovative online courses and programs in partnership with industry leaders who are “setting the pace in Industry 4.0 to deliver amazing student experiences and student outcomes for the years to come”.