Resume

• Creator & interviewer, Front Up (SBS TV)
• Channel Host, World Movies Channel
• Presenter, Movies This Week, Ovation & World Movies Channels
• Founder and editor

A career journalist, Hungarian born Andrew L. Urban has been writing about film and filmmaking since 1985. In 1997, Andrew and his wife Louise launched 'Urban Cinefile', Australia's award winning weekly online movie magazine, publishing reviews, interviews, news and much more. He is currently Editor of www.urbancinefile.com.au. In 1998, Andrew was commissioned to interview past and present graduates of the Australian Film Television & Radio School to celebrate the school's 25th anniversary. The interviews were also the basis of the 60-minute ABC TV documentary, Brilliant Careers, which he wrote and narrated. It featured interviews with Phil Noyce, Gillian Armstrong, Jane Campion, Phillip Adams, Sir John Gorton, among dozens more.

Andrew’s first novel, If You Promise Not To Tell (Hodder Headline, 1995) was nominated in the inaugural Ned Kelly Awards for Best First Crime Fiction. In 2019 it was republished by Wilkinson Publishing, who in 2018 also published his investigative non-fiction book, Murder by the Prosecution, which explored wrongful convictions.

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Alent Vargas has been teaching Mathematics since 1996 at both University and High School levels. She has extensive experience in marking at HSC levels and in examination standard-setting for the Stage 6 Mathematics General course. Alent is currently the head of a Mathematics department in a Senior Sydney High School that specialises in preparing students at Stage 6 level.

Alent holds a Bachelor of Secondary Education degree, with major in Mathematics and a minor in Science. She has also completed the academic requirements for the Master of Science in Mathematics Education. Alent is currently accredited by NESA as a Proficient Teacher.

Alent has considerable experience as a presenter and facilitator for a number of Mathematics General workshops and seminars for teachers of Stage 6 Mathematics in the Sydney Catholic diocese. She is also a member of a Southern Sydney diocesan committee, developing and writing programs and course material for HSC Mathematics General course.

A life-long fascination with the mystery of numbers and a passion to inspire others lies at the heart of Alent’s teaching and personal learning journey.

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Maggie Videan is a Learning and Development professional with a special interest in the area of professional development for the Executive Assistant. Her qualifications include a Bachelor of Arts (Psychology, Education & Communication) and a Certificate IV in Workplace Training and Assessment. Maggie’s experience includes speaking at national conferences, conducting in-house training for Executive Assistants, writing for EA-specific publications and delivering training at the Centre for Continuing Education where she has been a tutor for over 15 years.

Maggie has been privy to the many challenges and issues facing the present-day EA and continues to provide up-to-date learning opportunities to keep the skills of the current day EA relevant and meaningful.

Having worked across a wide and diverse range of industries, Maggie is an experienced educator, presenter and facilitator, and her training sessions are highly interactive and engaging.

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Mandy is an IT professional with over 30 years of experience in delivering transformational technology training services across a broad range of industries. Her expertise lies in curriculum development and the design and delivery of Microsoft Office training solutions.

She has an established record in managing technical change projects in ICT infrastructure roles and has a proven track history of achieving outstanding results in the transformation training change space within the legal, financial, and education industries and for private and public sector clients.

Mandy designs training solutions in collaboration with her clients using a detailed training needs analysis to determine the training specifications and delivery outcomes required for the professional development of technical and general staff.

Her experience includes instructional design, coaching, strategic planning, organisational development, change management, e-learning, project management, mentoring, curriculum development, and delivery/facilitation of training programs across a variety of industries as well as the reportable monitoring and evaluation of learning outcomes.

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Cheng-Wei has gathered broad experience teaching Chinese in tertiary institutions. He holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics from UNSW, specialising in the field of Second Language Acquisition. He also possesses a Master’s degree in Cognitive Psychology from the U.S.

Cheng-Wei’s dynamic and engaging teaching style is based on his training and ardent belief in communicative language learning. He embraces state of the art technology within teaching practices and integrates learning materials into communicative tasks. He is sensitive to learners' zones of proximal development and alters his speaking and teaching style accordingly. His students are therefore able to strengthen their language competence and to keep motivated to continue the learning of Chinese in the long run.

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Stella (Xiaowei) Wang is an enthusiastic teacher who has taught Mandarin in a number of language schools throughout Sydney, as well as in several primary and secondary international schools in Beijing. Stella has a passion for sharing the Mandarin language and Chinese culture, and loves to see her students' abilities and confidence grow. She works hard to make her classes engaging, interactive, and relevant, going above and beyond to ensure students can apply their knowledge to everyday situations. This is facilitated by fostering a friendly, easy-going classroom environment in which all students are encouraged to speak and take part.

Stella holds both a Bachelor of Laws and a Master of Laws from Renmin University in Beijing, China, and a Master of International Communication from Macquarie University. Throughout her university career and due to her cross-cultural experience, Stella has developed an appreciation for all facets of communication, including languages. This experience, combined with her life-long love for sharing knowledge, led her to a career in language teaching. She has since obtained a Certificate IV in LOTE Teaching (Languages Other Than English – Mandarin) from UNSW, and a wealth of teaching experience, both in China and Australia.

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Anny Wang is a qualified Mandarin teacher with NESA accreditation who specialises in teaching Chinese to speakers of other languages. She is an enthusiastic educator with extensive teaching experience which includes previous postings with the Confucius Institutes in the NSW Department of Education (2013-2016), Kensington Public School and some of the high schools in NSW.

Her classes are inclusive and creative. By using a student-centred teaching method, she encourages students to be creative and integrate the knowledge into their real life.

Anny gained a Master of Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages from Nanjing Normal University; She also graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Chinese Language and Literature from Fujian Normal University; As a lifelong learner, Anny is also currently studying Master of Teaching at Charles Darwin University. Anny was a part-time Chinese language teacher at Nanjing Normal University in 2012.

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With over 19 years' experience in the field of user-centered design, and a background in web design and development, Carrie has worked in startups through to complex corporate B2B environments. In the corporate world, Carrie has worked as UX designer for Optus, NBN, Equifax and Deloitte Digital. Carrie holds a Masters of Information Architecture and a Bachelor of Visual Arts.

She has a wide range of user-centered design skills, having worked from inception through to project delivery and beyond. With strong stakeholder and team management experience, Carrie’s passion lies in enabling teams to create compelling stories through words and visuals to engage users, customers, and stakeholders.

Carrie has also worked as an instructor for various training providers, and as a UX Mentor for Harness.

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"Your purpose in life should be to find your purpose in life. Find what lights you up and makes you happy and do it every-single-day!"

Dale White is an international coach, trainer, exercise scientist, keynote speaker, and business consultant. He holds a double Bachelor's Degree in Business and Exercise Science from the Queensland University of Technology and has founded several companies, including Ripple Fitness, White Lightning Co, and The Healthy Lifestyle Transformation. He is a graduate of various Business Mastery programs.

For 16 years, Dale has helped thousands of people and businesses through his programs, coaching, training, and consulting. He specialises in helping people and businesses identify barriers that limit their success and then create customised solutions and strategies to overcome them and thrive. Some of Dale's notable clients include the NSW Department of Education, NSW Department of Communities and Justice, Hostplus, CHOICE, NSW Reconstruction Authority, Australian Wool Innovation, Legal Aid NSW, and Hartmann.

Dale is renowned for his high-energy presentations that leave the audience both inspired and energised. He is passionate about win-win outcomes and solutions and was recognised for his commitment to helping others with the Logan City Council's Young Citizen of the Year award in 2014.

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Guy Williams has been speaking and training in sales and management education for over 20 years. Arriving in Australia from the UK in 1990, he worked at the University of Technology Sydney selling and delivering programs to students from Japan and the Middle East.

Guy has a Masters in Adult Education, SPIN and Situational Leadership accreditation and is an NLP Practitioner. Over the past 15 years he has been helping sales teams manage their sales pipeline, process and key clients more effectively at a number of large organisations including The Travel Corporation, AMP, BMW, Hyundai, ING, Toshiba and CPB Contractors.

Guy believes training should be highly relevant, beneficial and fun, whilst catering for the different learning styles and needs in the classroom. He prides himself on being able to empathise with learners, adjust his style, and connect. His sessions are dynamic, engaging, energetic and entertaining using a mixture of instruction, facilitation, interaction, pair and small group work.