Welcome to <strong>my</strong> <strong>World</strong>...discover the possibilities<strong>The</strong> City Centre - Classroom to Boardroom ProgramMany thanks to the teachers at City Centre for assistance with this report“<strong>The</strong> greatest good you can do foranother is not just share your riches,but reveal to them their own.”Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)101 Year 9 students from Mill Park and HillcrestSecondary Colleges recently descendedon 101 Collins Street as guests of sevenleading corporations - Credit Suisse, Challenger,Goldman Sachs JBWere, MacquarieBank, Boston Consulting <strong>Group</strong>, Booz AllenHamilton Consulting <strong>Group</strong>, Freehills - anda brand new world of corporate Melbournewas opened to them.‘Welcome to <strong>my</strong> world…discover thepossibilities“ is an exciting extension of <strong>The</strong>City Centre’s “Classroom to Boardroom”program which provides rich opportunitiesfor young people from government schoolsto meet with staff and leaders of many ofthe foremost corporations across Melbourne.This visit was the result of much work doneby Victoria Foster, Associate InvestmentBanking, Credit Suisse, in collaborationwith <strong>The</strong> City Centre, and was the first timeClassroom to Boardroom has been managedon such a scale. “Welcome to <strong>my</strong> <strong>World</strong>”provided an opportunity for firms in 101 Collinsto collaborate and increase the impact oftheir involvement in social responsibility.Classroom to Boardroom builds bridgesbetween the classroom and the world ofwork. Although the environment may bevastly different, the core values of theworkplace are closely related to the valuesthat teachers are developing with the youngpeople in their classrooms: teamwork, collaboration,decision-making, effective communicationand leadership. Sometimes, anew environment helps an old message toget through.101 gave the young people an incrediblywarm welcome, and staff from the corporationsinvolved shared personal stories andexplained their work. Teachers from thecolleges said “it gave them (the students) theability to explore possibilities they may nothave previously thought were available” and,importantly, “it broke down barriers”.Booz Allen HamiltonConsulting <strong>Group</strong>Bronni Cloney, Renee Moshelias, CameronTurl, Pausha Mosley, Daniel O’Rourke, DeannaBarnett, Fiona Yiannoullou, MayleneSilipa, Steven Petrovski, Stanko Bos, SarahCa , Alie Peebles.Bryce Howie, Senior Consultant at Booz AllenHamilton, facilitated a hypothetical “commercialstrategy case” session, where studentsbrainstormed possibilities for how onesports apparel manufacturer might overtakeanother in the market. <strong>The</strong>y experienced theworld of defence through simulation gamesthat looked a bit like “playstation on steroids”.<strong>The</strong>y located their schools and suburbs ona map of the northern suburbs and musedabout strategic options for transport routesbetween Mill Park and Broadmeadows.<strong>The</strong>y shared sandwiches and drinks with thestaff at Booz Allen around the boardroomtable and exchanged stories about what theywanted to be when they grew up. Some ofthe consultants confessed to still not knowingwhat they wanted to do when they grewup! Everyone agreed that experience anddetermination, not just academic qualifications,are necessary to be successful in theworld of work.ChallengerNathan Barry, Gemma Marshall, MatthewRizza, Elly Hackney, Alexander Kundevski,Ahmed Jayba, Omar Moumajed, Scott Ford,Matthew Peisley, Kristijian Mihaljer, StephanieChapman, Troy Ashton, Jessica Buttigieg,Shannyn Cannell.You would not expect young people to besitting around a table discussing superannuationand mortgage management, butthat is exactly what happened at Challenger,which is in the business of buying and sellingmoney – a different notion of shopping fromthat previously experienced by the group.Tobin Fonseca, General Manager ofOperations & Technology shared his storyof starting out in the mailroom many yearsbefore. Tobin opened up the world of financesto the students with slides, graphsand personal stories. Tobin’s career path wasa long journey, nearly as long as coming allthe way from Canada.4 <strong>The</strong> 101 Quarterly
One aspect of many of the shared storiesin this program is how much people havetravelled the world with their work.Over lunch staff and students talked a lotabout work, footy, and what the kids wantedto do at school - and how to get into theshare market!Credit SuisseTeagan Ackland, Jessica Cordi, Tayly Ostwald-Comber, Tima Elmaneh, Daniel Sotiropoulos,Nicholas Rizza, Jessica Alexander, RebekahNitney, Keren Matilainen, Vicky Ford, MatthewDent, Josh Chivers, Adam Shelley, TonySylvester, Katie Ridding, Josh Fridey.Victoria Foster, the organiser of “Welcometo <strong>my</strong> <strong>World</strong>”, introduced herself and gavestudents the opportunity to find out aboutCredit Suisse and the staff involved in theprogram. <strong>The</strong> students were then dividedinto smaller groups and went through anexercise involving starting, running andexpanding a business of their choice. Thiswas a practical demonstration of the natureof their business. A visit to the IT Departmentwas also a great hit.This was followed by personal storiesfrom a wide variety of staff, all of whom couldbring to life the vast variety of paths they tookto reach their present career. Some of thestaff came from suburbs the students couldidentify with. Stories were shared over lunchin the boardroom where they learnt that oneof the most important things is attitude.Three things that were good about the day:. seeing how successful everyone was. they have places to calm down and relaxif they get stressed (like the 101 Art Gallery). hearing other people’s storiesFreehillsAnthony Comodo, Valter Ng, Michael Coniglio,Trishala Naidu, Sarah Rabahi, MelikeKasil, Iman Hujale, Karen Plant, ChrisHalkidis, Abdi Hujale, Matt Beattie, BradHutchinson, Zac Beattie, Nathan Caldwell,Michael Parker.After dragging the students away from thefabulous views in the Freehills boardroom,the Freehills staff told the students abouttheir roles in the company and took themfor a tour of the office. <strong>The</strong>n it was back tothe boardroom for lunch – delicious chickensatays, pizzas, sandwiches. Everyone piledtheir plates high and sat down to listen toMike Ferraro, Managing Partner of Freehillswho spoke about his background and careerand how it developed to become managingpartner at Freehills.<strong>The</strong> students were able to relate to hisItalian migrant background in Broadmeadows.Although good at sport, his academicgrades were not good. When his father toldhim to improve, or he would not be able toaccompany the family on holiday to Italy, itwas the catalyst that made him focus academically.He explained that if you haveambition and drive you can get somewhere.He spoke about the life experiences whichhad shaped his desire to be a lawyer, the impactof part time work from an early age andwhat being a lawyer in a large firm meantto him personally and professionally. <strong>The</strong>rewas also discussion on the importance ofgetting along with people, building relationshipsand treating others with respect.Boston Consulting <strong>Group</strong>Prashanth Bartlett, Nicole Martin,, NathanTaylor, Tyler McIntyre, Daniel Whelan, SamanthaMurabito, Scivane Issa, Kim Mustafa,Juliana Toma, Colin Mator, Matt Sinnett,Matt Shewan.Pauline Collyer from Boston Consultingorganized the visit to Boston Consulting<strong>Group</strong>. <strong>The</strong> students were introduced, intothe various roles in Boston Consulting, thehistory of the company and the future goalsby consultants Julia Haywood and MelissaRoberts. <strong>The</strong> BCG staff made this event amemorable and encouraging experienceand used the startup and development ofan airline as an example of the work theydo. <strong>The</strong>y shared personal stories about theirbackgrounds and the various pathways thatsaw them working at BCG, and planted theseeds in the minds of many of the students,that maybe one day they could do that too.<strong>The</strong>y really appreciated the views and intheir words, thought it was ‘sick, man’! Thatwas probably one of the highlights.Goldman Sachs JBWereJane Majo, Salvador Asfar, Elysha Larner,Rhys Rech, Kristie Gluyas, Tabitha Spiteri,Josh Brown, Maya Hadziefon, Emre Akbiyik,Harry Stamatiadis, Masi Taisi, Murat Kolay,Steven Bologna, Jessica Crossley , Jake Delgadillo,Jordan Bauchanan.Christpher Thorn, Executive Director, PhilanthropicServices, Goldman Sachs JBWere,explained Goldman Sachs business. Hewent back to basics explaining terms suchas shares and markets and shared his owncareer story with its beginning as the BasementJanitor. Students asked many greatquestions, including what qualifications theyneeded, what were his most important skills(getting along with people and networking),what time he had to get up in the morning(5:30!!) and what his salary was now! <strong>The</strong>rewas a tour of the trading room, where itwas found out that the research team andthe traders were divided by a glass wall andhad to receive permission before they spoketo each other.<strong>The</strong> Client Entertainment area was a treat- “everything is so clean”, and over lunch inthe boardroom they discovered details ofthe working careers of the consultants andsome of the special rewards of working fora global company.Macquarie BankHayley Arnold, Patrick Javier, Celeste Poutini-Warra,Stephanie Gallo, Alix Tate, MikeyMahmoud, Jack Devitt, Luke Mavity, NeilMendez-Lopez, Yalcin Akyildiz, Jessi Kazmir,Alan John, Ziad Amouche, Brad Bedford,Michael Taulaupe, Michael Spratley.<strong>The</strong> students were welcomed to the magnificentMacquarie Bank boardroom wherethey met Graham Maloney, Division Director,Financial Institutions <strong>Group</strong>. <strong>The</strong> teamexplained the world of banking, and thebusiness of Macquarie Bank, in the mostaccessible terms, with each speaker tellingstories of their own experiences in the worldof work, and the paths they had travelled toreach their current position. Students listenedto them speak and then engaged in warminformal conversation with the staff as theyabsorbed the incredible view and dined onhome-made hotdogs, sausage rolls, sandwichesand donuts - delivered by waiters!<strong>The</strong>y were then given the opportunityto visit the trading room, where they weregreeted equally enthusiastically, chattingwith staff and learning how business wasdone.<strong>The</strong> 101 Quarterly5
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