2023 Redlander
Alumni Awards
91约炮 was delighted to host the second Redlander Alumni Awards Ceremony to honour, recognise and celebrate our Alumni and their extraordinary achievements.
The awards night brings together some of 91约炮’ most outstanding and accomplished alumni and celebrates their achievements in their fields of work. This year saw some truly excellent nominations, congratulations to all Redlanders on their achievements.
Congratulations to our Winners
Alumni Award Winners
Dr Jennifer Farrell (Knight), Redlander 1962
Karyn Gojnich (Davis) Redlander 1978
Jane Bianchini (Whiting), Redlander 1990
Professor Michael Johnston, Redlander 1991
Elliott Wheeler, Redlander 1995
Young Alumni Award Winners
Dr Katherine Zyner, Redlander 2005
Tess Haubrich, Redlander 2007
Max Glanville, Redlander 2009
David Porecki, Redlander 2010
Andrew Banks, Redlander 2013
The Award Winners
The Alumni award winners come from varied backgrounds and industries and are all recognised for their exceptional contributions to their chosen field and to 91约炮. The winners are divided into both Alumni and Young Alumni.听
Dr Jennifer Farrell (Knight)
Redlander 1962
Jennifer is a practising migration lawyer in the National Migration team at the Federal Court of Australia and has PhD in Access to Justice and Technology. Her specialties include Intellectual Property, Trade Practices, Information Technology and Migration Law.
Jennifer was a teacher at 91约炮 from 1970 to 1974 and was Head of History in 1973 and 1974. After having children, she then lived abroad in New Guinea and the United Kingdom.
After returning to Australia, Jennifer鈥檚 own children attended 91约炮. She served the School as a Member of the 91约炮 Association (now RPFA) in 1989 and 1994, Secretary in 1991 and 1990, and President in 1992 and 1993 and was instrumental in the development of the 91约炮 Ski Program when it was still in its early stages.
Karyn Gojnich (Davis)
Redlander 1978
A 91约炮 graduate of 1978, Karyn has excelled in the field of sailing at the highest level on the world stage. Having joined the sport at the age of 8, to eventually compete at three Olympic Games, spanning over 20 years from 1988 in Seoul, South Korea, Athens, Greece in 2004 and Beijing, China in 2008. She has also contested multiple world, European and North American championships and world championships
Karyn serves as Non-Executive Director and Rear Commodore of the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron (RSYS). As the Rear Commodore, she is the Chair of the Waterfront Committee, and is also a member of the Sailing Committee, Membership Committee and Youth Dinghy Sailing Committee. She has continually contributed back to her sport by serving as a coach and mentor for over 30 years.
Most notably, she is a mentor and strong supporter of women in sailing, having started the Ladies of the Sea (LOTS) program at the RSYS which, through the keelboat program, encourages women of all ages to not only discover sailing, but also endeavour to eventually race or even own a boat themselves.听
Jane Bianchini (Whiting)
Redlander 1990
Award Accepted by Georgina Joyce RL 2018 – Redlanders Alumni Association Rep
Jane is the sole female founder who sold her business to a US Private Equity firm in January 2021, successfully completing a short negotiated 9 month earn out phase in December 2021. This is significant as not many tech companies are female founded. Jane managed to create a point of difference for the business by building world first, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion feature functionality in her platform that leap-frogged even her biggest global competitor. This resulted in securing many notable clients including NBC Universal globally, NZ Police, L鈥橭r茅al, Australian Prime Minister鈥檚 Office and Cabinet and Allianz, to name a few.听
Jane was directly approached by a US Private Equity firm with an offer to acquire her business after a worldwide search for similar technology platforms. Jane is now a Limited Partner with the PE firm and holds a Global VP position with the entity her business was merged with.听
Throughout her career, Jane has held senior executive positions across both large public and small private companies, leading high performing successful organisations, recruiting technology and sales professionals across Asia Pacific. Jane has held various Board positions including Australian Computer Society, ITCRA (Information Technology Contract and Recruitment Association) and the Entrepreneurs Organisation as the Mentorship Chair听
Professor Michael Johnston
Redlander 1991
Award Accepted by Ben Johnston (RL 1991 and Friend)
Michael is Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Corpus Christi College Oxford. He is Fellow of the Institute of Physics, Australian Institute of Physics and the American Physical Society. His research has been recognised by an EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) Established Career Fellowship (2020), The Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2019), The Harrie Massey Medal from the Australian Institute of Physics (2018) and The IUMRS (International Union of Materials Research Societies) Somiya Award (2017).
Michael received his BSc and PhD from the University of New South Wales (Australia), and after a postdoc at the University of Cambridge鈥檚 Cavendish Laboratory, joined the faculty at the University of Oxford鈥檚 Department of Physics in 2002.听
At Oxford he established and currently leads a research group specialising on semiconductor physics, photovoltaics and terahertz (THz) photonics relevant to the solar panel industry. He has developed THz methods to study the electronic properties of nanomaterials, created new high efficiency vapour-deposited solar cells and invented novel THz emitters, modulators and receivers. He has been listed as a Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher since 2018.听
Elliott Wheeler
Redlander 1995
Elliott Wheeler is a film composer, music producer and the found er of Turning Studios. Immersed in both classical and contemporary, Wheeler has the unique ability to bring disparate talents, personalities, eras and idioms into unison with an overall vision. He is best known for his expansive work with legendary filmmaker Baz Luhrmann, which has spanned a wide range of iconic American stories and the many musical genres that defined them.听
His collaboration with Luhrmann began over a decade ago on the era-defying film The Great Gatsby, where his talents as an arranger and producer helped form a stylish and elegant melding of Jazz, Pop and Hip-Hop. Wheeler鈥檚 time as Executive Music Producer and Composer on the beloved Netflix sensation The Get Down saw him working with an array of music legends in Hip-Hop and beyond, from Nas and Grandmaster Flash to Christina Aguilera and Nile Rogers.听
At the heart of his compositions is a tremendous focus on storytelling and a disciplined attention to detail. Nowhere is this truer than in Wheeler鈥檚 current role as Composer and Executive Music Producer for the biopic of Elvis Presley. Directed by Baz Luhrmann, ELVIS was released in June of 2022.听
Dr Katherine Zyner
Redlander 2005
Katie has received many honours for her research in genetic sciences, including the University of Sydney Medal, the Australian Post Graduate Award and Cancer Institute of NSW Research Scholar Award. Katie received her PhD in 2015 from the University of Sydney for her research on chromatin biology in cancer while working at the Children鈥檚 Medical Research Institute (CMRI). Katie then relocated to the University of Cambridge, England, and Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, where she was instrumental in developing technologies that shed light the functions of four-stranded DNA structures and their significance in stem cell biology and disease.听
In 2022, Katie returned to the CMRI as a Senior Research Officer and is currently researching the molecular underpinnings behind stem cell fate decisions for regenerative medicine. She also holds a Conjoint Lecturer appointment at the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney. This year, Katie was awarded the Millennium Science 10x Fellowship, which is focused on applying DNA sequencing technologies to enable innovative discoveries.
Tess Haubrich
Redlander 2007
Tess is an accomplished actor who recently completed filming a leading role in the television series Friends Like Her, produced by Great Southern Television.听
Tess can be seen on the Netflix original film Spiderhead alongside Chris Hemsworth and Miles Teller and is also in a principal role in Last King of the Cross on Paramount Plus. She played the role of Rosenthal in the Twentieth Century Fox feature Alien: Covenant directed by Ridley Scott, alongside Michael Fassbender, and she starred in the Chinese/Australian Co-production Bleeding Steel opposite Jackie Chan. Previous feature credits include Wolverine with Hugh Jackman and Sci-Fi feature Infini, which streams exclusively on Netflix. She also appeared alongside Monica Bellucci in Hopscotch Feature Nektronic, premiering at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) 2018.听
Tess鈥檚 television lead roles include Treadstone for USA Network and Amazon Prime, Bad Mothers, produced by Jungle for the Nine Network, Netflix and Screentime series Pine Gap and Wolf Creek, a Stan original. Tess鈥檚 guest roles include ABC鈥檚 Jack Irish: Dead Point opposite Guy Pearce, and recurring role on Home and Away and SLiDE.
Max Glanville
Redlander 2009
Max runs an in-house, state-of-the-art, local manufacturing operation specialising in the making of orchestral string instruments and accessories, right in the heart of Sydney. For a country that has largely withdrawn from local manufacturing, to be at the forefront of designing and creating Australian-made instruments is a completely unique case study. His outstanding achievements in design, engineering and innovation make him an exceptional leader in his field.
Max has manufactured countless instruments under the brand Glanville & Co. with the belief that musical instruments should be affordable for everyone to learn and enjoy. Max and his team have achieved this by saving more than 100 hours of manual tasks, which would traditionally be done by hand. This accomplishment is largely thanks to Max鈥檚 expertise in computer-aided design (CAD) and the use of a cutting-edge 5-axis CNC (computer numerical control) machine. In an industry with over 400 years of tradition, Max stands apart from his peers due to his pursuit of doing things differently, seeing things from a different perspective and challenging the status quo.
David Porecki
Redlander 2010
Award Accepted by Will Cheng (Redlanders Alumni Association Representative)
David made his debut for Australia starting with a win against England at Perth Stadium with the national Wallabies Rugby Union team (Hooker) in 2022. He has 14 Test Caps and is President of the Rugby Union Players鈥� Association (RUPA) and a former NSW Waratahs Player Director. David has also played for NSW Waratahs 2015 and 2020 and was awarded the Waratahs Men鈥檚 Best Forward in 2023.听
Most recently he captained the Wallabies side in their 2023 World Cup games against Fiji and Wales in France, making him the 88th Wallabies Captain.听
In 2015 David went to England to play for the Saracens Rugby Club, before joining London Irish in 2016 where he was the Player Representative, representing the views of the RPA members at Board Meetings and acting as ambassador of the RPA and wider game. David was Co-Captain at London Irish Rugby Club during the 2019/2020 Season and was the recipient of the 鈥楶layers Player Award鈥�.听
Andrew Banks
Redlander 2013
Andrew is a driven and successful Pro Bono and Community lawyer at leading national law firm, Hall & Wilcox.听
Andrew practices across Australia to assist clients seek access to justice by taking on a variety of civil law matters, with a focus on human rights. He recently spent twelve months travelling across the Northern Territory, working to provide front-line legal assistance to remote Aboriginal communities, as well as building a Northern Territory pro bono practice. Andrew received a Certificate of Recognition at the NT Volunteer of the Year Awards following this work. Andrew is also co-chair of Hall & Wilcox鈥檚 Reconciliation Action Plan.听
He was a recent Finalist in the 2023 Lawyers Weekly 30 Under 30 Awards and is the NSW State Co-Convenor of Australian Lawyers for Human Rights. Andrew continues to give back to current university students and was recently invited to speak on a panel of other legal graduates who had completed the Macquarie Global Leadership Program to talk to students about early careers in the law.听
Thank You
to all Involved
Thank you to everyone involved in organising the 2023 Redlander Alumni Awards, an event recognising, honouring and celebrating the outstanding local and global achievements of the Redlander Alumni Community. Our sincere thanks to those who have made these awards possible.
