Business, marketing expert to lead new Gympie learning hub
A BUSINESS management and marketing academic, with an extensive business development background in the information technology industry is set to lead the University of the Sunshine Coast's new $5.5 million Gympie Learning Hub.
Graham Young will join USC at Sippy Downs next week and take up his position as manager of USC Gympie early next year.
Mr Young's previous job was at the University of Southern Queensland, where he was a lecturer in marketing and business management and the Fraser Coast Campus co-ordinator for its Faculty of Business and Law.
His research interests are strategic management and small/medium business management.
Mr Young, who lives in Hervey Bay, said he was impressed by the dramatic growth of USC.
"I was attracted to this job because it's a start-up operation, something I'm very familiar with after a long time in the IT and computer industry, where I started organisations from scratch and enjoyed the process very much," he said.
"The opportunity to do that again, for a university campus, is very exciting. I'll be able to utilise all the skills I've accumulated in the commercial world and academia."
Mr Young, who moved into academia seven years ago, said he enjoyed helping lead a small regional campus on the Fraser Coast prior to this appointment and was looking forward to his new role.
"I expect the first degree programs at USC Gympie - education and nursing - to be very popular," he said. "I've visited Gympie itself and the USC Sippy Downs campus and there's such a nice atmosphere about the USC campus that I hope to recreate in Gympie."
First semester classes at Gympie would be provided at the Wide Bay Institute of TAFE and James Nash State High School, while USC's two-storey facility on the TAFE campus was built. Mr Young said he expected USC Gympie to attract school leavers and mature-age students.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Birgit Lohmann said Mr Young had held management positions in industry and senior executive positions in academia and would be a great asset in developing USC Gympie.
