Meet the recipients of our Helen Macpherson Smith Fellowship
MBA student Nellie Montague and alumni Alyssa Cameron are passionate about leveraging the tools of economics and local government to create social impact.
Nellie Montague and Alyssa Cameron are the 2024 and 2023 recipients of our Helen Macpherson Smith Fellowship, which is awarded to an outstanding woman MBA candidate who lives in Victoria and shows senior management potential.
Provided by one of Victoria's most respected and generous charities dedicated to advancing women in management, the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust, the Fellowship allows a woman to study our Part-time or Full-time MBA.
We spoke to them about how they plan to use the opportunities provided by the scholarship to make a positive impact in society.
Nellie Montague: Using local government to create a fairer society
Our 2024 Helen Macpherson Smith Fellowship recipient Nellie has a decade of experience at local government agencies in various roles in transport, safety and amenity.
This year, she was appointed Manager Safety and Amenity at the City of Port Phillip, where she has served for the past five years.
The council covers inner-city neighbourhoods just south of Melbourne’s CBD, including Port Melbourne, South Melbourne, Albert Park, Elwood and St Kilda.
“I really like working in local government,” Nellie said.
“We're very close to the community. We really see and hear very quickly about the decisions that we're making that impact people's lives and the spaces around them. There’s the kind of ‘seeing it in action’ that I really like.”
In her current role, Nellie oversees compliance of community safety regulations and local laws, which includes areas like food safety, parking services, noise, domestic animal management, homelessness and environmental protection.
“How do we as an organisation, as a society, support those that are most vulnerable and most at risk, while ensuring their behaviour and challenges aren’t negatively impacting the wider community?” said Nellie.
Born and raised in the Melbourne suburb of Northcote, Nellie grew up in a family where societal issues like food security and public welfare were discussed around the kitchen table.
These discussions have stayed with her in her career and life choices.
“It’s a constant balance. I want to see people given opportunities and support when they need it to be able to grow and flourish on their own.”
While councils play a role as a negotiator and arbitrator, at the end of the day, it’s about shaping society in a way that is fair and equitable, rather than just responding to a specific worldview, Nellie said.
As her career progressed towards middle management, Nellie said she applied to the Part-time MBA program so she could gain a strategic perspective and learn how to work with teams at a bigger scale.
“I was really looking for some more tools and resources about how to do this: How to run a business, how to run a team, how to budget, how to come up with change management and innovative ideas,” Nellie said.
“I've been in local government for ten years. I was looking to learn from the corporate sector, the welfare sector, government, to see how we can run organisations better, especially in Victoria and Australia.”
She’s hopeful the MBA can help her make sure government and public service are continually improving what it offers to constituents.
“I've found it valuable hearing stories from other classmates and hearing their examples from their workplaces, the challenges they're facing, and a bit of that reassurance that every organisation has similar problems such as in HR around recruitment and retention.
“These things are not just in government. They are universal across organisations, and there's research and different ways of thinking about how to solve some of those complex issues.”
Nellie is grateful to the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust for supporting her vision of a fairer and more sustainable society.
“Part of the reason I applied for [the fellowship] was I really liked the vision of a strong, just and sustainable Victoria,” she said.
“That’s what drives me to leave the world a better place than I found it.
“We're setting ourselves up to be financially sustainable, to be sustainable for the environment, and to be sustainable for the people that we need to work in those industries so councils can continue to support all those who call our cities home.”
Alyssa Cameron: Using economics to deliver good social outcomes
Alyssa is an economist with nearly a decade of experience providing economic and public policy advice to government, the not-for-profit sector and industry.
She is also the Victorian Chair of the Women in Economics Network where she works with a passionate group of women to advocate for gender equality, particularly within the field of economics.
For Alyssa, being awarded the fellowship gave her confidence that pursuing an MBA as an economist was the right choice to broaden her skillset. “I'm passionate about using my skills to deliver good outcomes for society,” said Alyssa. "I get the opportunity every day to work on challenges that exist in society or markets that don't work well for everyone, and I enjoy thinking about ways to fix them."
“Learning new skills and approaches to tackle problems in the MBA program really adds another layer of critical thinking that is valued by policy makers and industry.”
As an economist, Alyssa is most proud of the work she’s done that involves a social purpose.
“I’ve worked on some really impactful projects that have the power to change people’s lives. For example, helping deliver Victoria’s low interest loan program so that community and social housing providers can build more homes for Victorians.”
“That was a great project to be involved in because we were working with the people out there building homes for those who need it most. The commercial knowledge that an MBA teaches you helped me navigate conversations with Government’s commercial delivery partners to deliver better social outcomes for Victorians.
“I’ve also been able to learn from my peers who have different and varied experiences in industry, not for profit, and other parts of the public sector. This has allowed me to provide practical policy advice that reflects the latest practices in industry.”
Other highlights are her work developing inclusive education programs, and helping Indigenous Australians measure the economic impact of closing the gap with non-Indigenous Australians.
“I remember sitting in a meeting with one of the Elders who was part of the Indigenous community organisation leading the work, and he was so blunt,” Alyssa recalls.
“He said, ‘You know, money is what makes government listen. This is why we need economic analysis so that the government can see how much better off the economy would be if they made these changes to improve the lives of Indigenous Victorians.’”
In October, Alyssa was appointed to the role of Senior Economist at Great Western Water, a Victorian Government-owned water corporation that serves urban and regional areas to Melbourne’s west and north-west. Previously, she was a Principal Policy Adviser in the Commercial Division of the Victorian Government’s Department of Treasury and Finance.
It was one of three professional milestones she marked last year, the other two being her appointment to the board of our Centre for Social Purpose Organisations and her graduation from the Part-time MBA.
“Being able to join the Board has been a wonderful way for me to give back to the Trust, but also to give back to Melbourne Business School, because I've had such a wonderful experience with the School as part of my MBA.
“To have this recognition by an organisation that itself has contributed so much to improving the social fabric of Victoria is something I’m really proud of.”
To find out more about the Helen MacPherson Smith Fellowship as well as other scholarship opportunities, visit our Scholarships page.
To find out more about studying at Melbourne Business School, visit our Degree Programs and Short Courses pages, or learn about our range of services For Organisations.
