AAS Magazine Vol 1 March 2017 Mar. 2017 Vol 1 | Page 5

AAS has made tremendous strides over the past 62 years, and 2016 was another year of great achievement for the Australian Alumni in Singapore community. I am delighted to announce the release of our inaugural AAS Magazine, which celebrates many of your outstanding achievements.

The AAS Magazine is a general interest publication covering news from across the Australian Alumni in Singapore community. It is designed to cover an array of distinguished alumni, faculty, industry and newsmakers in business, politics, academia, entertainment and more, with the agenda to inform our Members and the wider AAS Community. It is produced each semester with a team of volunteer writers, editors, and designers. It is distributed to our 32 Australian Universities, 23 Alumni Chapters, and to their more than 140,000 Australian Alumni resident in Singapore, and 60,000 international students.

In the pages that follow, we shine a spotlight on our distinguished Australian Alumni. We promote the milestones of research, citizenship and innovation at our Australian Universities. We celebrate your success in leadership as well as your many achievements across the world, and the rankings and launch of new and unique Australian Academic programs.

We are privileged in this edition, to share contributions from our esteemed Patrons, His Excellency Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam, President of the Republic of Singapore, and His Excellency Mr. Bruce Gosper, Australian High Commissioner. President Chris Cheah lays out the AAS 2017-2019 Strategic Plan: The Way Forward and showcases our 2017 Electoral Candidates for the upcoming AGM.

RMIT's Ryan Lee shares his lessons learned during his entrepreneurial journey at X-Mini. USQ's Yoong Hui Chia highlights the opportunities for international growth through industry innovation, and Dr Janson Yap, provides a new perspective on strategies for surviving and thriving in an SME economy. We introduce you to your 2017 Alumni Chapter Presidents and shine the spotlight on the University of Newcastle (UON) Chapter President, Kaushik Bhanushali. We celebrate UQ's top 10 MBA World ranking, Jack Ma's scholarship tribute to UoN, JCU's new Academic programs, the many outstanding anniversaries across our University network, and much more.

Let's celebrate your achievements highlighted in this inaugural edition, and rally together to achieve "The Way Forward". For what we have learned over the past 62 years is that we really are stronger together.

Leesa Soulodre,

Chief Editor

AAS Magazine

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