Leading workplace diversity expert Professor Nareen Young is joining UTS Business School to lead Indigenous leadership and engagement initiatives.
Nareen will join the school as acting Associate Dean (Indigenous Leadership and Engagement), where she will be leading the Business School’s portfolio of Indigenous education, research and engagement initiatives.
As one of Australia’s leading and most respected workplace diversity practitioners, Nareen has broad experience across academia, corporate and governance roles. Most recently she has worked as Professor of Indigenous Policy at UTS’s Jumbunna Institute of Education and Research, where she has led Jumbunna’s Indigenous People and Work Research and Practice Hub, which focuses on robust research and analysis, policy, practice, people and law reform and leads the National Indigenous employment sector.
Nareen joins the Business School as Professor Robynne Quiggin steps into the role of UTS Interim Pro Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous Leadership and Engagement), following Professor Michael McDaniel AO moving to a new role as special advisor role to the Vice-Chancellor on major Indigenous priorities for UTS.
“We are delighted to have Nareen’s extensive experience and deep understanding of Indigenous business and employment leading our Indigenous initiatives, and building on the significant contributions of Professor Quiggin in making Indigenous leadership and knowledge a centrepiece of our broader strategy,” says Professor Carl Rhodes, Dean of UTS Business School.
“Indigenous education, research and engagement have long been at the heart of what we do at UTS Business School – from our dedicated research and HDR programs, our specialist programs like the Bachelor of Business Administration and the Indigenous Nation Building stream of our Executive MBA, as well an essential part of our core curriculum, providing unique insights so we can ensure our graduates can work with and for Indigenous Australians,” says Professor Rhodes.
"I am privileged to be able bring the Indigenous-led research and policy formulation focus of Jumbunna and the unique Indigenous-lead approach to Indigenous employment as a discipline that we’ve developed over the last few years, and to combine this with the broader work and reach of the UTS Business School," says Professor Young.
"I'm indebted to the Indigenous leadership of UTS, particularly Distinguished Professor Larissa Behrendt, for their example of determinedly Indigenous-lead work and approach to the broader life of UTS, and their example of Indigenous ways of grace and leadership in doing this."
Before joining UTS in 2018, Nareen was Director and Employment Lead at PwC’s Indigenous Consulting. She has also led and managed two Diversity peak bodies (Diversity Council Australia and NSW Working Women’s Centre), with enormous impact and success over more than 15 years, and prior to this was a trade union official and sat on the Executives of both UnionsNSW and the ACTU during that time.
Nareen’s work is influenced by her Indigenous (Eora descendant through the Fowler family) and culturally diverse heritages, and she has received numerous awards and acknowledgements, including the inaugural Westpac 100 Women of Influence honour for Diversity.
An influential public figure, Nareen comments widely in the media and presents and publishes her work nationally and internationally. Nareen also has significant governance experience, spent a term as Director, Indigenous Business Australia and currently sits on the boards of Souths Cares, BlakDance, Per Capita, Diversity Arts Australia and Evolve Housing.