UBSS Council

The Council is the governing body of UBSS and has functions conferred upon it by its Constitution.

Functions of Council
Council Members

The functions of the council include:

To develop and approve broad policies and strategic plans including quality assurance policies
To receive quarterly financial reports for UBSS
To define the educational profile of UBSS
To represent UBSS as the occasion requires
To confer awards
To appoint the Dean of UBSS
To establish an Academic Board
To exercise delegated authority to establish, review and implement basic policies to govern and carry out the UBSS mission

Council Members

Members of Council are predominately external to UBSS and comprise representation from academia, the professions and the community. Council members are appointed in accordance with the UBSS Constitution.

Mr Alan Finch (Chairman), BA(Melb), FAIM

Alan Finch is Pro Vice-Chancellor at Bond University. He joined Bond’s foundation team in 1987 and was heavily involved in the initial planning of the academic and student administration for Australia’s first independent, not-for-profit university.

Mr Finch is also Deputy Chair of the Council of Private Higher Education and has served on a variety of bodies, including the Advisory Council to the Board of Secondary School Studies and the National Advisory Committee on Higher Education Statistics.

Professor Tom Valentine
BEc, PhD (Princeton), FFTA

Professor Tom Valentine is the Chairman of the Salisbury Group. He is Adjunct Professor of Finance at MGSM Macquarie University. Professor Valentine was formerly a Professor of Banking and Finance at the University of Western Sydney, a position he has held since 1995. He was also Dean of the Faculty of Commerce from 1995-1998. Other prior positions include: Professor of Finance, University of Technology Sydney; Professor of Finance and Director of the Centre for Applied Finance, Ku-ring-gai College of Advanced Education and Professorial Fellow and Director of the Centre for Studies in Money, Banking and Finance, Macquarie University. He has been a member of the Board of the Australian Financial Institutions Commission, Chairman of Audit Committee, Australian Financial Institutions Commission, Member of the Board of the Financial Institutions Commission of NSW and Chairman of the Audit Committee of the Financial Institutions Commission of NSW. Professor Valentine has consulted to the Law Reform Commission on Bankruptcy and Managed Investments, was a consultant to the Royal Commission into the State Bank of South Australia as well as a Senior Advisor to the Campbell Committee of Inquiry into the Australian banking system that led to the deregulation of the financial sector.

Tim Denlaney
B. Comm (UNSW), CA, CPA, F.FinSIA, GradDipFin.Planning (FinSIA)

Tim Delaney holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of New South Wales and is a Chartered Accountant, a Certified Practising Accountant and a Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australasia (formerly the Securities Institute of Australia). In addition he holds a Graduate Diploma in Financial Planning from FinSia. Mr Delaney has more than 20 years experience in providing corporate and personal financial advice gained whilst working for major accounting firms and multinational corporations. In particular, he worked in Coopers and Lybrand’s Corporate Finance practice (in both Sydney and London) for 8 years focusing on providing corporate finance advice to support major acquisitions, mergers and corporate restructures. He also worked as a Corporate Development Manager at Pioneer International Limited (a major Australian multinational building materials group) identifying and executing international mergers and acquisitions culminating in Hanson PLC’s friendly acquisition of Pioneer in 2000 for $4 billion. At the time this was the largest ever acquisition of its type in Australia. Mr Delaney is a director of StructuredWealth Pty Ltd, a boutique advisory firm specialising in providing personal financial planning advice and strategies. He also provides corporate finance advice to businesses undertaking major financial transactions and infrastructure schemes. Mr Delaney is guest lecturer and co-ordinator of Mergers and Acquisitions at University of Technology Sydney. He has also lectured in Mergers and Acquisitions at The University of Western Sydney.

Professor Bill Ticehurst
BSc, DipEd, MSc, MEd, PhD

Professor Bill Ticehurst is a highly regarded curriculum designer and quality consultant. He was formerly the Associate Dean of the Faculty of Business at the University of Technology Sydney and prior to this, Head of the Department of Communication Studies at Ku-ring-gai College of Advanced Education. He holds a Doctorate in Education, and a Masters Degree from Macquarie University; a Masters Degree from Sydney University; and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of New South Wales. He is an Honorary Associate of the School of Management at the University of Technology Sydney. Professor Ticehurst has written many books, journal articles, and conference papers in the management, communication and education fields. He has been a supervisor and an examiner for a number of PhD theses, and is also a past President of the Australian Communication Association. He is a member of the editorial review committee of the Australian Journal of Communication. He has been Chair, Board of Studies, Business Program, at Taylor’s College, Kuala Lumpur; Chair of the Board of Examiners at the International Business and Management Education Centre in Singapore; and Chair of the Academic Board at InSearch, Sydney. He has developed a number of international business degree programs in conjunction with Reims Management School, France, the University of Shanghai, and the International Business and Management Education Centre in Singapore.

Gisela Ramensky
BA (Hons), LLM (UTS), Notary Public, Principal Lawyer

Gisela was admitted as a lawyer in 1983 and has worked extensively in trade practices, debt recovery, insolvency, commercial litigation and property law. In 1993 she started her own firm, Ramensky Lawyers, and now concentrates mainly on advising small to medium businesses, as well as continuing to work in the areas of commercial litigation and property law.

She has a Master of Laws focussing on international and local business law, computer law and industrial relations.

Gisela was President of the North Metropolitan Law Society for 2 years in 1994 and 1995 and during that time was a regular speaker on community radio speaking on a variety of legal topics. She was a member of the Council of the Law Society of New South Wales for 3 years from 2002 to 2004 inclusive. During that time she was Chair of the Immigration Law and Human Rights Committees and a member of the Property Law, Business Law and Legal Qualifications Committees. For 4 years she was also a member of the Home Building Advisory Council, established by the Department of Fair Trading.

Gisela has a keen interest in community issues and was on the Council of the Community Justice System for 3 years and a member of the community advisory panel to Sydney Electricity for one year. She was also on the panel of solicitors at the Chatswood Legal Centre for 8 years from 1993 to 2001 and on the Board of the Chatswood Chamber of Commerce for 4 years from 2005 to 2009.

She is a member of the following professional organisations:

Law Society of New South Wales
Society of Notaries
Chatswood Chamber of Commerce

Alan Manly, Managing Director, Group Colleges Australia (GCA)

FAICD, JP, MACS

Mr. Manly has over thirty years experience in business management in industries including technology and education. He has twenty years experience as a Company Director with private and public companies. He is a former Director of the Australian Council of Private Education and Training (ACPET) and was a member of the ACPET NSW State Committee. He is a Justice of the Peace, a member of the Australian Computer Society and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

David Knight, Dean, UBSS

BA(Hons), MEd (Leadership), GradCertSocSc, MACEL

Mr. Knight has a Bachelor of Arts with Honours, a Graduate Certificate in Social Sciences (government), and a Master of Education (specialising in leadership and management) from the University of Queensland and Macquarie University, respectively. He joined Group Colleges Australia in August 2011 as Dean of UBSS. Prior to this appointment, he has held 15 years of management and administrative experience in higher education, with recent employers being the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and The University of Sydney. As Dean of UBSS he is accounbtable to the UBSS Council and the GCA Managing Director for the performance of UBSS.

Notary Public, Principal Lawyer