Lou Oppenheim is a trained engineer who majored in computational linguistics. She wasn’t in a position to continue her studies with a PhD, so opted for a job with Boston Consulting instead.

That led to a role advising the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra to move from being under the wing of the ABC to becoming a standalone company – and that eventually led Oppenheim to the top job at Sydney Dance Company. “An arts company is exactly like every other business. We’re trying to understand the drivers of our income and expenses,” Oppenheim says.