Emeritus Prof Jim Psaros

Chair of the Governing Council

Emeritus Professor Jim Psaros was a Professor of Accounting at the University of Newcastle until 2015. He held senior positions at the University of Newcastle including Deputy Head – Faculty of Business and Law, Assistant Dean Teaching and Learning, Director of Executive and Corporate Programs, Head of the Department of Accounting and Finance, and Academic Director of the Sydney Campus.
Prior to entering academia, Emeritus Professor Psaros was employed for several years in Chartered Accounting. He has experience in Australia and overseas working for Big 4 Accounting Firms. For more than 20 years he has taught and researched at Australian and British Universities. He has sat on the Board of Directors of companies and the audit committee of government authorities. He has both extensive professional accounting and research experience.

Emeritus Professor Psaros has a PhD in Accounting from the University of New South Wales. Throughout his research career, Emeritus Professor Psaros has focused on issues of practical importance. He has conducted research in a range of areas including auditing and fraud, the inadequacies of Australian accounting standards, and more recently, corporate governance mechanisms. Emeritus Professor Psaros has published extensively and has made many presentations at professional and academic forums.

Since Emeritus Professor Psaros retired from full-time academia in 2015 he has engaged in various consulting activities in the Higher Education Sector.

Prof Rebecca Mitchell

Member of the Governing Council

Prof Mitchell was awarded her PhD in 2008 from the University of Sydney. Her research interests lie in organisational behaviour, including team dynamics, leadership and social identity in organizations. As an early career researcher, Rebecca has had articles accepted for publication in internationally recognised journals including the Journal of Organizational Behaviour (A*), Human Resource Management (US) (ABDC A*), Human Relations (ABDC A*), Journal of Business Research (ABDC A), Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology (ABDC A), International Journal of Human Resource Management (ABDC A) and Small Group Research (ABDC A). She has also published in healthcare management, with articles accepted for publication in Health Care Management Review (ABDC A), Journal of Advanced Nursing (ERA A*), Medical Care Research and Review and International Journal of Nursing Studies (ERA A*).

Overall, more than half of Rebecca’s research outputs are ranked A or A* (Australian Business Deans Council, UK ABS or ERA 2010 list). She has presented more than 30 papers at international conferences including the US and British Academy of Management and is a full professional member of the European Association of Work and Organisational Psychology and the US Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Rebecca works with a number of national and international collaborators. She works closely with Hunter New England Local Health District and has a strong connection with the Royal College of Surgeons.

Reflecting the quality of the publications that Rebecca has produced, her academic manuscripts on organisational behaviour and health services management have been recognised internationally, through high-level awards. In 2014, she won the British Academy of Management Best Paper in Strategic Management and, in 2012, the Best Paper Award in Organisational Psychology. She was finalist for the US Academy of Management’s Newman Award in 2008, which is the Academy’s highest honour for a sole-authored paper based on a dissertation. In 2008, she also won the US Academy of Management Best Paper Award in Organizational Behaviour and the Irish Academy of Management Best Paper Award. In 2009, Rebecca was awarded the Best Paper Award in Knowledge and Learning from the British Academy of Management and received the Outstanding Reviewer Award in Organizational Psychology. In 2011, Rebecca was awarded the Irish Academy of Management Best Paper Award. This provides strong evidence of the international value of Dr Mitchell’s research outputs and recognition of research excellence.

Rebecca has successfully supervised a number of doctoral students to completion. Many of her students have published in top-tiered journals, indicating the effectiveness of her supervisory approach.

In addition to her academic experience, Dr Mitchell’s worked in the Australian and Irish public sector, as a senior policy advisor. She has worked as State representative on several Council of Australian Government (COAG) working parties and has developed health, community and social services policy at a state and national level. She also worked as State representative on the Council of Australian Government’s Working Group on Health Reform. This provides sound evidence of her ability to understanding issues of significant national importance, particularly in healthcare, and the capacity to undertake research that spans bridges academic research with policy and practice.

Adj Prof Asif Iqbal

Member of the Governing Council
Member of the Academic Board
Compliance and Special Projects Director

Adj Prof Asif Iqbal has over twenty years’ experience as an academic, most of it in academic management roles. Educated in several continents Prof Iqbal’s initial commerce degree in Pakistan and a degree from the UK was followed by employment as an academic at the Assumption University of Bangkok and as the Head of the Marketing Department at the Bradford University, Bangkok Campus/Centre.

In Australia, Prof Iqbal lectured at the University of Wollongong, Australian Catholic University, Central Queensland University, and the University of Newcastle. He worked at the Central Queensland University for six years as lecture and the Sub-Dean of the Faculty of Business and Law. In that role, Prof Iqbal led a team of over 100 academics in wide ranging disciplines. As Sub-Dean of the Faculty of Business and Law, Prof Iqbal played a key role in the establishment of the new Sydney campus of Central Queensland University.

In 2005, Prof Iqbal was instrumental in setting up the Sydney Campus of Curtin University of Technology where he worked as the Academic Director leading a large team of academics until 2009. He managed the comprehensive campus audits conducted by the Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) and was the Chair of the Academic Board at the Sydney Campus of Curtin University of Technology.

Prof Iqbal has been member of various corporate and academic committees at the Central Queensland University, Curtin University of Technology, the University of Wollongong, the University of Newcastle, Australian Institute of Business and QIBA Sydney.

As member of the CPA Australia Universities Committee, he played a key participant’s role in establishing a new membership pathway through study of foundation courses.

Following his role at Curtin University and prior to joining Southern Cross School of Business (SCSB), Prof Iqbal established the higher education division of Williams Business College and led it successfully in gaining the status of a non-self-accrediting higher education institution. The College Governing Council then appointed Prof Iqbal the Campus Director & Dean of Williams Business College. Prof Iqbal served as the Chair of the Higher Education Executive Management Team and a member of the Governing Council and the Academic Board. He is well-known for his expertise in higher education management and is widely consulted in the areas of higher education registration and course accreditation regulatory process.

Governance