RMIT UP Executive Leadership Team
Jake Heinrich
Jake holds a Bachelor of Arts, a Master of Education (TESOL) and a Master of Business Administration.
He has extensive experience in the education sector, working as a lecturer in China, Vietnam and Australia, and as an ESL teacher in Australia, Japan, Taiwan, China, Mexico, Cambodia and Vietnam. He has also held executive positions in higher education and pathways institutions, as well as time at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, where he was responsible for a range of international education products.
Jake joined RMIT Vietnam in 2016 as Director of the School of English and University Pathways (SEUP). He commenced at RMIT UP in 2018, leading the Commercial, Operations and Finance department before becoming CEO in September 2021.
Jake is committed to his vision for the international education sector, striving to always offer the best of pedagogy enhanced with a rich and diverse student experience.
Tony Aszodi
Tony Aszodi commenced as Associate Director of Academic Pathway Programs for Foundation Studies in May 2025, bringing a distinguished background in educational leadership. Before joining RMIT UP, Tony served as Director of Studies Pathways at Swinburne College, where he managed multiple academic departments and courses. His extensive experience includes course development, academic leadership, and implementing innovative learning strategies tailored to diverse student needs.
Notably, Tony has excelled in spearheading quality assurance initiatives and staff recruitment and development programmes. He is passionately committed to enhancing the student experience and driving positive change.
Mitun Chakravarty
Mitun Chakravarty is RMIT UP's Associate Director of IT. She has the strong lateral thinking, technical expertise and stakeholder influencing skills needed to drive meaningful and sustainable technical change, and is a skilled leader of IT teams, integrated technical strategies and technical programs of work. Mitun has a Master’s Degree in Computer Application (MCA) and over 20 years’ experience in IT across three countries. Over the past 4 years she has driven RMIT UP's cloud first technology strategy from concept to reality.
Mitun values three core elements of leadership: Concentration, the ability to access in depth knowledge; Informed Decision Making that allows one to make effective decisions; and Empathy to drive high performance and people success.
Josh Edwards
With 25 years’ experience across start-ups and medium to large companies, including complex international organisations, Josh has earnt a strong reputation for providing commercially and values-focused leadership with the ability to impact business culture.
His career has included executive and senior level positions at The Coles Group, Lonely Planet, Momentum Energy, Enett International and RMIT Online. A Certified Practising Accountant, Josh has a passion for purpose driven companies that can impact lives.
Kate Fennessy
Kate graduated with Arts, Honours in Japanese Studies, completing her Honours year at Saitama University after studying as an undergraduate at Osaka Gaikokugo Daigaku.
Her early career was in the TAFE and local government sectors, working with ‘at risk’ youth and in program management before taking the leap into advertising, following a stint writing for the women’s website Mamamia. Kate ran her own social media and digital marketing business for four years before joining RMIT UP in late 2021.
Kate is passionate about clear, personalised communication, and believes in the power of words and storytelling.
Elise Fraser
Elise Fraser is RMIT UP's Director Wellbeing and Student Experience. She has a Masters degree in Counselling & Psychotherapy, a Graduate Diploma in Education, a Graduate Diploma in Counselling, and a Diploma in Fine Art.
Elise has been leading Student Experience and Wellbeing programs for international students for more than 18 years. Her background in fine art and education allows her to bring various creative threads together in her research-informed wellbeing and student experience programming. Elise leads a number of discrete teams: Wellbeing, Student Experience and Academic Support, all of which are focused on student success and wellbeing, but each with a specific and divergent focus.
Malcolm Neil
With over 25 years of experience in the publishing and digital content industries, Malcolm Neil brings a wealth of expertise to the role of Director, Informit. As a former CEO of the Australian Booksellers Association, he was instrumental in guiding key copyright discussions on parallel imports. His career spans leadership roles at Monash University Publishing, Melbourne University Press, Small Press Network, and Private Media.
Malcolm’s international achievements include establishing Kobo’s commercial eBook business in the Asia-Pacific region and leading strategic publishing initiatives for global companies Bibliotheca, Legible and Wattpad. He is also an active contributor and respected advisor in the publishing and media industry, having served on various boards, including the board of Overland Magazine.
Nick Philippou
Nick Philippou has been the Deputy Director of English at RMIT University Pathways since 2017, overseeing all aspects of ELICOS program development and delivery, as well as academic governance and compliance. With 25 years of extensive experience in English language education, previous positions have included Director of Studies, Senior Teacher, and IELTS examiner. He has also taught at university and independent colleges across Australia and internationally.
Additionally, Nick has served as a board member for English Australia, representing the Victoria Branch as State Delegate since June 2020. His qualifications include a Master of TESOL, IDLTM, CELTA, and a BA (Hons).
Kathy Prince
Kathy has extensive Human Resources leadership and management experience across a range of education sectors and institutions, including primary and secondary schools, and now higher education. Kathy is focused on enabling individuals and teams to thrive and excel and has a proven track record in designing and delivering fit for purpose people plans linked to business objectives.
Kathy firmly believes that education is the cornerstone to a thriving society, and she is passionate about making a difference in higher education.
RMIT UP Board Directors
Mish Eastman (Chair)
Mish Eastman was appointed to the role of RMIT UP Board Chair in July 2023 after serving as a Board Director since 2020.
As RMIT Deputy Vice-Chancellor Vocational Education Mish Eastman is responsible for developing and leading a renewed vision and strategic direction for Vocational Education. Since joining RMIT, this has included establishing the new College of Vocational Education and the development of a 5-year strategic roadmap for vocational and applied learning.
She is passionate about gender diversity in all aspects of education and creating space for women in non-traditional roles, continuously providing diverse opportunities and support as part of her leadership style. An advocate for creating a safe and respectful community, Mish is also co-chair of RMIT’s Vice-Chancellor's Advisory Group on Gender-based Violence Prevention.
An experienced education and health leader, Mish has strong expertise in identifying and creating new models of education and training in collaboration with industry, enhancing tertiary pathways, and understanding how to create educational and employment success for learners. Beginning her career as a Registered Nurse before moving into educational leadership roles, has given Mish a deep knowledge and passion for Vocational Education.
She has previously held positions with TAFE Tasmania, Tasmanian Polytechnic and Swinburne University of Technology, providing strategic and operational leadership of teaching and learning programs in pathways and Vocational Education.
James Morgan
James joined RMIT in 2021 as Deputy Chief Financial Officer, Strategic Finance, before being appointed Chief Financial Officer in January 2025.
James leads the Finance and Assurance function, who provides a range of services across RMIT to ensure financial sustainability, support commercial and operational strategies and provide risk and compliance assurance.
James is an accomplished and values led finance executive with extensive experience in leading high performing teams across large, complex organisations. He is passionate about delivering organisational goals through cross functional collaboration.
Prior to RMIT, James had a 14-year career with Telstra where he held a number Divisional CFO roles across a broad range of complex business operations, delivering revenue and operational improvements.
Prior to moving to Australia in 2007, James held several senior roles at British Telecom and PricewaterhouseCoopers in London.
James is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales.
Elizabeth Compton
Elizabeth Compton was appointed to the RMIT UP Board in July 2023 as an independent Non-Executive Director (NED). She is an experienced NED with other board roles including Chair of the Continence Foundation of Australia and NED of one of Australia's largest NFP aged care and retirement living organisations, Southern Cross Care (SA, NT and Vic).
Prior to this Elizabeth was the CEO of LanguageLoop (2016 - 2021) a multilingual communications organisation delivering interpreting and translations solutions to government and large corporates across 190 languages. She spent almost a decade living and working overseas working for Goldman Sacs (London and New York), Yamaha Motors Europe (Amsterdam) and the Department of Trade and Industry (London).
Dr Simon Livingstone
Dr Livingstone has worked for 28 years in the vocational and higher education sectors. His most recent executive role was 19 years as Chief Executive Officer of a tertiary agribusiness College based in Geelong. Dr Livingstone’s PhD is in higher education, and he holds tertiary qualifications in School Management, Further Education and Training, Business and Agriculture. In addition to his board position with RMIT Up, he is a Director and Deputy Chairman of the Primary Industries Education Foundation Australia and is an active member of the Audit and Risk and the Human Resource and Governance Committees. Dr Livingstone has served on the Victorian Government Higher Education Advisory Committee and is a past Board Member of Independent Higher Education Australia and the Council of Private Higher Education.
Tom Bentley
Tom Bentley is the Vice President for Strategy and Community Impact and Vice-Chancellor’s Innovation Professor at RMIT University. He is also Treasurer of the International Association of Science Parks and Areas of Innovation (IASP), and a co-founder of the Melbourne Innovation District (MID).
From 2007-2013 he was Deputy Chief of Staff and senior adviser to Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia (2010-2013) and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister Education and Employment (2007-2010). From 1999-2006, he was Director of Demos, an independent think tank based in London. Tom has also worked as an expert adviser for institutions including NESTA, the OECD, the Gates Foundation, the UK Education Secretary, the Australia and New Zealand School of Government and the Copenhagen Business School.
Company Secretary
Connie Merlino
Connie oversees University Governance and Compliance functions at RMIT. She is the registered RMIT CRICOS Principal Executive Officer and Chairs the ASQA Delegations panel as well as the Admissions Governance Steering Committee. She supports the RMIT Council and its sub committees and all RMIT entities.
As Academic Registrar, Connie is responsible for student records from admissions through to graduation including academic governance and program approval, international student compliance and government reporting.
Connie has more recently been appointed as Interim University Secretary, overseeing the University Secretariat, Governance, Compliance, Privacy, Freedom of information and Contract Services teams. She is also the designated Company Secretary for all RMIT controlled entities.
Before joining the ARG, Connie was the Assistant Director of Compliance, leading the Compliance and Privacy Advisory team. She previously worked in the University Secretariat, supporting the University Council, Academic Board, and its committees, and led the academic governance review. Before RMIT, Connie held executive officer and company secretary roles, focusing on board management, compliance, and governance. She has degrees in Commerce (Management) and Law and is a qualified Australian Lawyer.
Careers at RMIT UP
Inspire students from over 50 countries. Create best practice teaching programs. Grow a global business. Expand knowledge in digital services.
