Minister Appointed

Please select each member below to view their profile.

Ms Meredith Symons

Meredith SymonsMeredith Symons is a UNE Graduate (Bachelor of Financial Administration, Accounting and Finance) and ACA, who has lived on-campus at Earle Page College and loved all aspects of the UNE college experience.

A corporate financial services professional with extensive domestic and international experience, Meredith has a global mindset with expertise in the treasury, tax, finance and shared services aspects of corporate financial management.

Meredith sits on a number of subsidiary boards at Goodman Fielder, as well as a Joint Venture board based in Indonesia.  She has a group perspective, is skilled at considering the business implications from the numbers and has experience with technology including introducing new systems.

Meredith's career has taken her overseas and she has had responsibility for overseeing international portfolios.  She has held senior financial positions at some of Australia's top corporations including Goodman Fielder (FMCG, Food manufacturing), Macquarie Bank, UBS and Price Waterhouse Coopers.

Meredith is looking forward to contributing her expertise to the University of New England Council.

Meredith has served on UNE Council since 2014 and was appointed to UNE Foundation Ltd from 2015-2019.

Mr David van Aanholt

David van AanholtDavid has close to 30 years' experience in the property and funds management industry. Prior to establishing his own boutique property group in 2007, he was the Chief Executive Officer (Asia Pacific) of the ASX listed Goodman Group. Before being appointed as CEO (Asia Pacific), David was Goodman Group's Chief Operating Officer.

David worked for Goodman for more than a decade and before joining them he was the Fund Manager of ASX listed Paladin Industrial Fund and an Associate Director of CDH Properties (acquired by KPMG).

David has a proven track record at both executive and Board levels in the development and implementation of effective business strategy. He also has extensive and practical experience in change management.

David is the Chairman and an Independent Director of the Kennards Self Storage Group. He is also the Chairman and an Independent Director of the ASX listed 360 Capital Group Limited. David is a Fellow of the Australian Property Institute.

David grew up in regional New South Wales and now lives in Sydney with his wife and three sons. He understands the challenges and rewards for rural based students studying an undergraduate degree at University.  He completed his postgraduate studies in Management and Business at the University of New England (UNE) via correspondence. Studying at UNE allowed David to meet both the demands of a senior executive role and the responsibilities of helping to raise a young family.

David holds a Bachelor of Business (Land Economy) from the University of Western Sydney, as well as a Postgraduate Diploma in Management and a Masters in Business Administration from UNE.

David is the UNE Council-appointed member on the UNE Foundation Board.