Beyond the School gates

Old Michaelian Karen Trepte (OM 1986) is currently working for the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD), whose purpose is to strengthen society through world-class governance. Karen feels that in her role, she fulfills this purpose by bringing governance education and advisory services to Boardrooms in Victoria.

This role allows Karen to use her own board experience to help other board members bring a new level of governance to their organisation which she explains “entails speaking to lots of very interesting and inspiring leaders – which is my favourite part”. Karen also shared that she has been able to work with boards bringing governance into the Indigenous space, to enable the Indigenous voice to be heard. Karen feels that in her role she is serving the community and, upon reflecting on her time at St Michael’s and in the Girl Guides, she believes that both the School and the guiding movement held service to the community in high esteem. While she says that community service might make us think of volunteer work or charity work, service can come in many guises, “Board members are custodians of the company for a short time, and they do their best to grow that company for the next generation”. Karen’s career went to a new level when she moved into account management in the energy industry. She made her mark in energy sales in Victoria before moving to the United Kingdom. During her time in the UK, she rose to become a board member herself and started her own energy brokering business, which grew to an organisation of 50 people across three locations. Speaking about how St Michael’s prepared Karen for her career, she says “with the House system, which turns 100 this year, we were able to compete at many activities in a safe and nurturing environment. This gave me the competitive streak I have to this day, and the love of mixing with lots of varied personalities. We also learned that not everyone is like us – and that is OK too”. Karen has some sage advice to all students, “pursuing a future in any field relies on taking opportunities that come your way, whether you are ready for them or not, you might just surprise yourself”. She also reflected on the advice she received from the Careers Counsellor of the day that “we would have more than one career in our lifetime – gone were the days of a job for life”. Karen felt that this advice helped her to know that a change in her career pathway was to be embraced and not feared. We thank Karen for her time and for sharing her experience.

Old Michaelian Patrick Hughes (OM 1996) is a film writer, director and producer, known for a number of hit action movies including The Hitman’s Bodyguard (2017), The Expendables 3 (2014) and Red Hill (2010).

Patrick is passionate about writing, directing and producing films. This year, Patrick has focused on writing and is writing three films including one for Netflix. He really enjoys the writing stage and describes it as “pure creativity that is untouched and untainted”. Prior to, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, Patrick was directing films, which involved a great deal of travel around the world. Directing involves managing crews, actors, studios, budget and the schedule and taking on the responsibility for the entire production. Despite all of this, Patrick said, “there is a tremendous amount of reward that comes out of hard work” and he is excited that he will be back on set directing next year. He says that Australia is a wonderful place to be filming now due to exchange rates, which haven’t been favourable since 1999. For Patrick, a key highlight of his work is that from day to day his job is never the same. He is conscious that on paper his job seems ridiculous. A typical day for a director might involve travelling to an exotic place, filming a boat chase and blowing something up, which sounds incredible. Another highlight for Patrick is that he is fortunate to work with many gifted and talented crew and cast and every day he is learning something new from others, particularly those that have been in the industry for longer. Thinking about his time at the St Michael’s and how the School helped him prepare for his career, Patrick said that he “feels indebted to St Michael’s”. Patrick was very interested in the Arts and Fine Arts at school and was often involved in acting in the School productions. Patrick studied photography in his senior years, however, he was also interested in filmmaking, often filming in and around the School, using his friends as actors. There were no film studies at St Michael’s at the time and when Patrick was in Year 10, he visited the Principal, Mr Tony Hewison, advising him that he really wanted to apply for the Victorian College of Arts (VCA) to study film and television. Patrick explained to Mr Hewison that in order to do this, he needed to create some short films and asked whether one of the art subjects could be made into a film course. Mr Hewison was very open to this idea and the Photography course became a combination of photography and film studies. Mr Hewison’s willingness to listen to student voice allowed Patrick to create his short films in order to be admitted into the VCA. Patrick also feels that St Michael’s provided him with the foundations for transitioning into adulthood and entering the workforce, including developing his people management skills which are highly important in his current role. Only when stepping back, after finishing school, was Patrick able to appreciate what the education system and the School did to assist in setting him up for his future. The short films that Patrick made during his time at St Michael’s did well and won many awards, including Best Film at the Australian Teachers of Media awards, Best Art Film and Best Drama and Short film, with his film playing at the IMAX cinema in Sydney just after he finished year 12. This really helped Patrick to launch his career and be accepted into the VCA. His advice to students who are interested in pursuing a career in the film industry, or any industry, is to “go for it, the only person that is going to stop you from pursuing what you are passionate about is you. Believe in yourself and in your ideas, don’t wait for approval from others to tell you that you can or can’t do something”. Patrick has recently created his own production company, Huge Films, here in Melbourne and is looking forward to producing and shooting his upcoming projects here, including the action and sci-fi film ‘Warm Machine’ which will be filmed next year. We thank Patrick for taking the time to share his story of success in the film industry and we wish him all the best with his upcoming films.