Business leader David Baxby is Bond University’s new chancellor

Business leader David Baxby is Bond University’s new chancellor, the first person to hold the position who is a graduate of the university.

Newly appointed Bond University chancellor David Baxby.

Bond University has appointed business leader David Baxby as its new chancellor, the first person to hold the position who is a graduate of the university.

Vice-chancellor Tim Brailsford said the appointment marked a new era for the 35-year-old university, because it was now sufficiently mature to appoint a leader from within the ranks of its graduates.

Mr Baxby said it was an honour to be appointed as Bond’s ninth chancellor and he intended to enlist the support of the university’s alumni community to continue to grow the institution “in all aspects”.

Mr Baxby graduated in 1994 after completing a bachelor of commerce and a bachelor of laws on a half scholarship.

He has a remarkable personal story as one of three sons of a single mum. His mother, Nanette Carroll, left school at year 10 and by her late 20s was raising her three young sons alone.

Ms Carroll’s breakthrough was winning a job as a secretary at Slade Consulting where she rose up the ranks.

David Baxby and his mother Nanette Carroll at Mr Baxby's graduation from Bond University in 1994.

Slade was purchased by UK group Blue Arrow/Manpower in 1988 and, in 1990, Ms Carroll and a business partner led a management buyout of one of the divisions of the company. It grew rapidly and Ms Carroll was awarded Australian Telstra Business Woman of the Year for business owners in 1996.

In his business career Mr Baxby worked for Goldman Sachs in Australia and overseas, and later worked for many years for Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, serving as co-CEO from 2011 to 2014 with oversight of 300 companies from airlines to trains to space travel.

After returning to Australia in 2017 he was appointed managing director of Wesfarmers industrial division and in 2021 co-founded private equity company Coogee Capital.

Mr Baxby said he was fortunate to have worked across a range of industries around the world, an experience which provided him with insights into the future of work.

“I trust that this experience will bring valuable insights to the university, and its strategy and planning for the future,” he said.

Professor Brailsford said Mr Baxby also had a rich personal association with Bond University.

“David met his wife Selina here on campus and two of their children have also recently graduated from Bond, so Bond truly runs through his family’s blood,” Professor Brailsford said.

In 2012 Bond University awarded Mr Baxby the Robert Stable Alumni Medal, which recognises exceptional achievement by a graduate.

As chancellor, Mr Baxby replaces Annabelle Bennett, a former Federal Court judge, who has served eight years as Bond’s chancellor, the maximum allowed under the university’s constitution.

“Dr Bennett provided a strong sense of stability and committed leadership which was very much required during the years of great uncertainty induced by the challenges of Covid,” Professor Brailsford said.