Korowa School Council

Council Korowa School

By Helen Carmody, Principal

Julie Catanach – Outstanding Service to Korowa

Julie has been associated with Korowa since 2005, when she and her husband, David, enrolled their daughters: Amelia (Class of 2016) in Year 1 and Annabel (Class of 2019) in our Early Learning Centre. Since then, Julie has worked tirelessly for the good of the School. She has always recognised the benefits of a strong community, and this has been central to her desire to enhance connection at Korowa. She has been Class Representative a number of times, building connections between parents in her daughters’ year levels and welcoming new parents to the School. Julie was a great contributor to the Korowa Parents’ Association; she became its President in 2012 and retired from the KPA Committee in 2017 as Vice-President. Julie and David have been generous benefactors and, as a result of their philanthropic support, they are Associate Fellows of the Korowa Foundation. They have also generously donated many items from Catanach’s Jewellers to be auctioned at events such as the Korowa Parents’ Association Balls. Both Amelia and Annabel became involved in rowing. Julie and David, true to form, became very committed parents in Korowa Friends of Rowing, giving enormous support over seven years. In 2015 and 2016, Julie was Junior Rowing Co-ordinator; David was Logistics Officer for seven years. Catanach’s Jewellers also generously contributed to the introduction of a Rowing Medallion, presented to all Year 12 rowers. In honour of their enormous contribution, the School named a quad The Catanach Family. Julie was invited to join the School Council in 2013 and became Deputy Chair in 2019. She not only brought her financial and management acumen, but also her passion for Korowa and her strong belief in the benefits of girls’ education. She chaired the Audit and Risk Committee and was a member of the Leadership Committee that was involved in my appointment as principal. Julie became a Director of the School to contribute her knowledge and skill to ensuring that Korowa remained at the forefront of educational practice. As Julie said: “I saw serving on the School Council as an opportunity to give back to a community that has given so much to our daughters and our family. I also saw it as an opportunity to contribute to Korowa’s ability to provide diverse and innovative educational opportunities for girls well into the future, honouring those in the past whose generosity had afforded the same opportunities for my own daughters.” The School gratefully acknowledges Julie’s years of service and commitment. I have enjoyed a close working relationship with Julie and she has been a tremendous support to me in my five years at Korowa. She has truly lived up to our School motto: “No reward without effort”.

Richard Tan – Farewell

2020 was Richard Tan’s last year as a Director on the Korowa School Council. Richard commenced as Director in 2018 and has been a significant contributor to School Council’s strategy and planning for the future development of Korowa. Richard’s experience as a Project Architect and Project Manager was particularly helpful during the development of the new Sports and Wellbeing Centre. The School and wider Korowa community are very grateful to have had someone of his calibre serve on our School Council. Richard will continue in his role as a valued member of Korowa School Council’s Building Committee.

Joanne Chin BComm (Hons) (Monash), LLB (Hons) (Monash) Joanne is currently the Chief People Officer at Kraft Heinz (Australia, New Zealand and North East Asia). Prior to this she led the people team at Waymo, the company born from the Google self-driving car project. During her tenure, Joanne oversaw the spin-off of Waymo into a separate company and built the HR function and strategy. Prior to that she was a senior HR leader at Google in London and San Francisco, including partnering with the Google cloud teams for Europe, Middle East and Africa. She started her career as a corporate lawyer for five years, specialising in corporate litigation at Allens in Melbourne and Sydney. Her experience as a lawyer has prepared her well to negotiate with her seven year old twins, especially during home schooling. She looks forward to being on the Korowa School Council having fond memories of her time at Korowa and a particular interest in gender diversity in the workplace and female leadership and education. Joanne is a Korovian (Class of 1993) and in her final year was Vice Captain of the School.

Gail James BSc(Hons), PhD, MBA Gail is a senior professional with 20 years’ experience in the healthcare sector spanning medical, sales, marketing, business development and senior leadership. She runs her own business, a consultancy firm specialising in the delivery of strategic assessments, marketing and technical support for brands from product conception to go-to-market implementation programs. “My daughter joined Korowa in 2017, and in that time, I’ve seen the School continue to offer more and more opportunities to the students. I’ve been impressed with its academic achievements, its ever expanding extracurricular activities, and the continuous improvements of the campus facilities. Joining the Council provides me with an opportunity to look at innovative ways to support current and future students. Working with the talented group of Council members, I am keen to use my professional skills to help continue the excellent work done to date in ensuring Korowa’s ongoing success as a leading educational institution.”

Joining the Council provides me with an opportunity to look at innovative ways to support current and future students.