INTHEBLACK July/August 2023 - Magazine - Page 32
MEMBER PROFILE
The university kept delivering on its learning,
teaching and research commitments throughout
the pandemic, including supporting students,
staff and the community on many levels.
A student hardship fund was established,
partly funded by staff contributions, to help
those who had limited means of supporting
themselves. This included student food
hampers, food vouchers and financial support.
Greentree and his team were front and
centre of the university’s crisis management
team, which was established when COVID‑19
started raging through the population.
This allowed all key decision‑makers to act
promptly and decisively.
“My team, and the entire university,
lifted to the next level. It made me realise
everyone’s value connection to what the
university does and that we had in place
a team that could dig deep and deliver. If
we had been culturally dysfunctional and
fractured, we could not have delivered to the
levels we did during that difficult period.”
32 INTHEBLACK July/August 2023
A BETTER LEGACY
Greentree is clear that all facets of
university life must be managed with
careful planning and foresight.
“We have to always make sure that we
are financially viable, and that we invest
intelligently and sustainably, because we have
a social licence to operate that demands the
highest standards from us. We can never
allow our standards to drop, as a leading
educational and research institution.”
“You have to stay grounded to who you are,
your values and what you are here to achieve.
“These are some of the core attributes
I value in others around me, rather than
societal status or pure monetary wealth
as measures of true success. The latter is
a superficial proxy for intergenerational
success and leaving a legacy, in my view.
“What better legacy to leave than
to lift those around you, to help them
aspire to their own success through
education and career development?”
