2018 Carey Medallist
Nic Mackay James Newnham Chair of the 2018 Carey Medal Committee
The Carey Medal is presented at Speech Night to a member of the Carey community in recognition of their exceptional and outstanding service to the local, national or global community.
years’ time, and this was what a job at a law firm represented. I think I was motivated by a sense of challenge and purpose; that whatever I was doing was making a difference.’
The Carey Medal recipient for 2018 is Nic Mackay.
Nic has since spent his career helping to establish and develop some of the largest and most influential organisations in the world that are seeking to create positive social change.
Nic was a Carey student in Fullard House between 1989 and 2001. In those years, he won the Gerard Cramer Memorial Prize for Outstanding Service to the Middle School, the Martin Sorensen Memorial Prize for Debating in Year 10, and was Vice-Captain of the School and co-winner of the Henry Meeks Senior Award for Scholarship, Leadership and Co-curricular Activity in Year 12. Although these were amazing achievements, it was only the beginning of his remarkable work throughout his life. While undertaking and completing an Arts Law degree at the University of Melbourne, Nic co-founded and worked with the Oaktree Foundation. After completing his degree he had a significant decision to make: become the lawyer he had studied to be, or continue to pursue social activism. Nic described the choice as follows: ‘It wasn’t necessarily courage that motivated me… I didn’t like knowing exactly where I was going to be in ten 44 | Torch
In 2003, Nic and close friend Hugh Evans set up an appointment with Carey’s then Principal, Phil De Young. They asked him for an office, access to computers and a phone line to assist Nic and Hugh to grow the Oaktree Foundation. Their purpose was to enable young people to actively work together to help end extreme poverty. Oaktree quickly gained momentum. It partnered with South African organisation Sethani and helped fund a community and education centre for 750 people. Later, the organisation coordinated the MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY concert in 2006, which was designed to coincide with the G20 Summit in Melbourne that year. The concert attracted bands like U2 and Pearl Jam, played to 15,000 people and was watched by over 3 million people on television. In 2010, Oaktree launched
‘Nic has spent his career helping to establish and develop some of the largest and most influential organisations in the world that are seeking to create positive social change.’
