Nick Bottral

President

EIM Training

Relaxed, Driven, Caring, Mischievous, Humourous, are not usually words that go together when describing your leader, but those words somehow make sense when it comes to describing Director of EIM Training and Chair of StudyGoldCoast, Nick Bottrall.

Nick’s right brain creative, entrepreneurial style has presented him with many experiences and opportunities in business and his personal life. A professional musician in the 80’s, then establishing and owning an office equipment company in the early 90’s, becoming a corporate trainer in 1998 and founding a training company in 2004. EIM Training has fast grown to become one of the largest private Registered Training Organisation (RTO) on the Northern Gold Coast, with a additional campus in Hervey Bay.

Nick Discovered NLP (Neuro-linguistic Programming) in the mid 90’s and has been studying and teaching its powerful methodologies for the last ten years, embedding it in many of his sales and management training programs. He has worked at the highest levels training and coaching executives, managers and sales people in a wide range of leading organisations including MLC, ANZ Bank, Coles Myer, Microsoft, Macquarie Radio Works (92.5 Gold FM & 90.9 Sea FM), Accor Premier Vacation Club, and the Australian Defense Force to name a few.

Nick is not famous, he is not an international speaker, hasn’t yet got around to writing a book and is not yet a billionaire, but he’s certainly not boring, and you will learn many almost magical communication skills in his talks and training sessions.

Stuart Love

Vice President

Aurora Training Institute

Stuart Love has a lifelong dedication to the continuous improvement in the quality of education and training standards provided by the tertiary sector. This is evident, not only through the establishment and growth of Aurora Training Institute, but through his own personal studies.

Stuart’s contributions to knowledge in the education and training sector include involvement in numerous industry forums and conferences. He holds post graduate qualifications in business and various others qualifications in hospitality, training and assessment, human resources, and project management.

Utilising his 20 years business and education industry experience, Stuart aims to deliver positive results to Study Gold Coast Members and the wider education community.

Aaron Devine

Treasurer

Gold Coast Institute of TAFE

Suzie Neeson

Southern Cross University

In the early 1990’s, after an extensive teaching career in Australia and Indonesia, Suzie Neeson was appointed RMIT University’s first professor of English. Within a few years, Suzie was managing the largest university based English Language Centre in Australia, with students from over 70 counties, more that 140 staff, and with off-shore teaching arrangements in Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and Laos.

In 1997 Suzie was appointed Director of Education & Training at the Australian Institute of Management in Melbourne, and an Associate Professor at Europe’s largest business school, the Norwegian School of Management.

In 2005, Suzie moved to the Gold Coast and was the Training Operations Manager at King’s International College. In this position, she managed an RTO which delivered courses for domestic and international students in Business, Nursing, ELICOS, Community Services, Children’s Services, Hospitality, and Automotive Engineering.

Today, Suzie is Director of Studies at Southern Cross University’s Tweed Gold Coast campus. She is a justice of the Peace, a Registered Marriage Celebrant, and a member of many Government and Industry Advisory Boards and Committees.

Odette Tuitama-Roberts

Secretary / International Marketing Chair

Bond University

Odette Tuitama-Roberts has recently taken up the position of Marketing Manager for Bond College and the Bond University English Language Institute. Following 20 years of living and working overseas, Ms Tuitama-Roberts returned to Australia in 2006 and began working for Bond University teaching for the academic pathways program Bond University provides for its international student population, before joining the international recruitment team. She has over 25 years experience working in the Australian, domestic and international education and ELICOS industries.

David Cox

Committee

Gold Coast Tourism

David currently works for Gold Coast Tourism, the destinations official regional tourism body as the Niche Markets Manager. David has worked within the marketing and membership services department at Gold Coast Tourism for six years and is responsible from growing the international education sector plus the backpacker and youth markets for the region. Prior to this David has extensive experience within the tourism and travel industry, working previously as an International Sales Executive and Conference Sales Executive for Couran Cove Island Resort, Inbound Travel Agent for Australian Holidays and also other hotel chains and theme parks.

Ned Pankhurst

Committee

Griffith University

Professor Pankhurst is Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research) and Provost Gold Coast at Griffith University. Previous to this appointment he was Pro Vice Chancellor (Science, Environment, Engineering and Technology), having joined Griffith in September 2006 from James Cook University where he had held the position of Pro Vice Chancellor of Science, Engineering and Information Technology since early 2004. After completing his PhD studies on freshwater eels, Professor Pankhurst spent three years at the University of Alberta (Department of Zoology) in Edmonton, Canada, as a Killam Postdoctoral Fellow, developing his expertise in fish endocrinology. In 1985 he took up a two year Fellowship with New Zealand Fisheries Research Centre in Wellington New Zealand, following which he was appointed to a lectureship (and three years later a senior lectureship) in Marine Biology at the Leigh Marine Laboratory of the University of Auckland, New Zealand. At Leigh, he developed a program of field endocrinology and behaviour of marine fishes, largely based on animals in their natural habitat. In early 1994, he took up a position of Associate Professor in the School of Aquaculture at the University of Tasmania, was awarded a Personal Chair in 1996 and then Head of School from 1998 to 2003. His work in Tasmania centred on using the understanding of fish reproductive physiology to manipulate and optimise reproduction of fish in aquaculture.

Prof Pankhurst's current research interests lie in the area of biology of fishes including the reproductive physiology and endocrinology of fishes; broodstock management and induced spawning of fishes in aquaculture; and the effects of climate change on fish reproduction. He has published widely in the field and routinely reviews for international journals.

Lisa Bowtell

Committee

Franco Pacific Studies

Lisa has been involved in the education and training industry in a marketing and business development role for the last seventeen years. She is the Managing Director of Franco Pacific Studies, a consulting company specifically focused on developing and implementing a range of national and international projects for the education industry and recruiting international students from French speaking countries wishing to study in Australia.

Her career in education and training has spanned across both government and private enterprise and with a degree in Psychology and Diplomas in Marketing and Management, Lisa had worked and studied in Australia, Africa and Europe. She is on the management board of a number of education institutes as well as a member of a variety of education associations and networks on the Gold Coast.

A strong advocate of all forms of education, Lisa has managed projects across all sectors of the education industry with a client base in Australia, Taiwan, Europe, Japan, Africa and the Pacific Region. Her knowledge and experience in the education industry brings a practical approach combined with best practice implementation to StudyGoldCoast.

Cait Feldmann

Committee

Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary

Caitlyn Feldmann, known as Cait, has been the Education Manager at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary for the past six years. She takes pride in offering quality conservation education programs for all students from Prep to Adult learners. Working with “kids and animals” is what Cait does best every day and her role combines teaching with planning and marketing.

Previously, Cait was the National Coordinator of the Australian Veterinary Association’s responsible pet ownership program and worked in a large bird park in the UK.

Cait is pleased to be a part of the Study Gold Coast Committee and looks forward to the year ahead.

Suzanne Dalton

Committee

Kings International College

Suzanne is the Industry Relationship Manager for King’s International College. Prior to joining King’s in 2006 she previously held positions as manager, coach & trainer with Flight Centre and her qualifications include a Bachelor of Arts, International Business Relations & Certificate IV in training and assessment.

Suzanne has a passion for marketing & development of Education and Training on and for the Gold Coast and is looking forward to being a part of the StudyGoldCoast Committee team.

Tom Betts Domestic Marketing Chair Bond University

Tom Betts is Bond University’s Regional Manager for the Gold Coast and Northern NSW region. As one of the foundation staff of Bond University, and with 20 year's experience with local school students and the education community, Tom has a highly developed dedication to both quality in education services, and to the greater welfare of young people.

Tom has been a state committee member for the National Association of Prospective Student Advisers, a national board member of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, a committee member of the GC branch of the Australian Institute of Management, and was a Foundation Committee member of the Bond University General Staff Association. He is currently on the School Council for St Hilda’s School, one of the Gold Coast’s leading high schools.

In his past Tom has been a journalist, film and television actor, university lecturer and scriptwriter. Tom’s qualifications include a Certificate IV in Workplace Training from Mackintosh College; a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California; a Postgraduate Diploma in Education from University of New England; and a Master of Arts in International Relations from Bond University.

Joanna Hewson-Williams

TESOL Chair

Langports English Language College

Joanna Hewson-Williams is the Director of Studies at Langports English Language College on the Gold Coast. Jo prides herself on being a vibrant and energetic leader and motivator. Her university studies in Linguistics and Languages included papers on language acquisition and syntax; these are areas for which she continues to possess a great deal of passion Over the last five years, Jo has developed a growing enthusiasm for teacher training specializing in adapting the lexical and syntax approach to a communicative classroom.

Jo looks forward to taking up the position as TESOL chair and making a lasting contribution to the industry.

Angela McGregor-Goodwin

Personal Development Chair

RTO Consulting

Angela McGregor-Goodwin has extensive experience in the VET sector and has been managing her own RTO since 2003. Since 1999 Angela has been providing consultancy setting up RTOs in Queensland and NSW, supporting existing RTOs with compliance, auditing, professional development, accredited course development and assessment (assessment design, validation and review). As a practitioner dedicated to sharing knowledge, Angela has consulted through many forums pertaining to compliance issues and improvement strategies for training and assessment services. Angela holds a number of qualifications including Diploma of Quality Auditing, Diploma of Business, Diploma of TAA and BA Business (Marketing).