Overview

The Centre’s flagship executive education offering, the Institute has been developed to accelerate the capability and careers of its graduates. The only executive education program of its type in Asia Pacific, and offered just once a year, the Institute is a residential program, comprising five days of intensive learning and insights into best practice corporate affairs at Melbourne Business School.

Cited as the best program of its type internationally, the Institute is one of the most important professional development experiences for corporate public affairs practitioners. Its participants develop new expertise, and it provides insights, ideas, market intelligence, practical tools, and motivation for practitioners to fast track their career progression.

The Institute program embraces international best practice across the entire breadth of public affairs disciplines and activities, including practical application in the workplace. Its sessions are delivered by an international Faculty, and a Guest Faculty of the profession’s most senior practitioners from ASX 200 and Fortune 500 companies.

Sessions include:

• The Evolution of the public affairs function – phases in the functional development
• Issues management foundations, tools and concepts
• Issues management systems
• Principles of stakeholder engagement
• Reputation stewardship and management
• The corporate narrative and organisational storytelling
• Internal communications and employee engagement, and the role of communication in effective workplace organization
• Good practice internal communication that works
• Development and role of the government relations function in large organisations
• Influencing government and regulators
• Media relations and the public affairs function
• Social and connected media and the corporation
• Community relations and managing risk
• Public affairs planning
• Trends and developments in function measurement
• Coalition and alliance formation and industry level public affairs
• Crisis management and communications
• Contemporary corporate responsibility
• Corporate community investment
• Harnessing and managing public affairs super trends: the next big things.

Public affairs case studies and syndicate group activity are part of the curriculum also.

Currently confirmed Guest Faculty:

• Mary-Jane Bellotti, Chief Purpose Officer – RACQ
• Cassandra Casey, General Manager, Communications and Stakeholder Engagement – ANSTO
• John Galligan, General Manager, Corporate External and Legal Affairs - Microsoft Australia/New Zealand
• Emily Gatt, General Manager, Corporate Affairs & Community - Westpac
• Jaimie Lovell, Director Government Relations and Industry Affairs – Woolworths
• Alistair Marshall, General Manager Communications - Healthscope
• James McAdam, Head of Government Affairs and Policy – Bristol-Myers Squibb
• Nicole McKechnie, Corporate Affairs Executive, and former Head of Communications - Telstra
• Liz McNamara, Group Executive Sustainability and Corporate Affairs – APA Group
• Melissa O’Neill, former Senior Group Director Corporate Affairs – Worley
• Michael Parks, Director of Sustainability -Treasury Wine Estates
• Felicity Ross, Group Executive Corporate Affairs – NBN Co
• Kate Schulze, General Manager, Industry Positioning and Engagement – Minerals Council of Australia
• Roger Sharp, Chief Sustainability & Corporate Affairs Officer – Bupa
• Samantha Stevens, Executive General Manager, Corporate Affairs - Origin
• Michelle Urquhart, Head of Employee Communications - Medibank
• Amanda Wallace, Head of Corporate Communications - Insurance Australia Group

The Institute is a must for mid-level practitioners looking to shift their capability to best practice, and for senior practitioners wanting to refresh and challenge their engagement with best practice.

Please email thecentre@accpa.com.au for the program outline.

2023 Institute Graduate Testimonials:

• Great structure and flow of sessions with theory and case studies it helped me feel my organisation's corporate affairs team are on the right track.
• I was impressed with the calibre of the topics and structure of the sessions. It provided extremely relevant insights and helped me to better understand disciplines outside of my areas of expertise.
• Content was very comprehensive covered all key areas and encouraged understanding of the full range all functions.
• I think all of the Faculty are world class, so knowledgeable, terrific communicators and, very engaging.
• The Faculty is fantastic. I felt so lucky to be exposed to and take advice from such a high calibre of corporate affairs professionals.
• I enjoyed and was appreciative of all the expertise imparted by all of the Faculty. I thought they all brought different but highly effective styles to keep me engaged. 
• Faculty were excellent, clearly very experienced. Very proactive and engaging with participants outside of sessions. Good balance between theory and practice.

Certification

30 credit points towards a Graduate of the Centre for Corporate Public Affairs (GCCPA) is available to participant from member companies on completion of the Institute program. 40 credit points are required across 36 months to reach and maintain GCCPA certification.

FACULTY

Wayne Burns, Director of Studies and Program Director

Wayne Burns is an experienced management consultant in Asia Pacific. He has more than 30 years’ experience in corporate advisory, consulting, public policy, journalism and political advisory.

Wayne writes about public affairs internationally and teaches public affairs executive education in Australia, New Zealand, China, Singapore, and Hong Kong. His specialist areas of professional focus include corporate responsibility, issues management, reputation stewardship, social media and organisational effectiveness.

He has also developed and led six international best practice study tours on reputation stewardship, corporate responsibility, corporate communications, and issues management.

Wayne has worked in senior public affairs and management roles in leading corporations in Australia, and has also previously established and managed his own public affairs company. He sits on a number of community and statutory Boards.

Dr Jennifer Griffin

Dr. Jennifer Griffin is Professor of Strategy and the Raymond C. Baumhart, S.J. Professor of Business Ethics at Loyola University Chicago’s Quinlan School of Business (Chicago, IL). Engaged at all levels of learning (e.g. executive, doctoral, graduate, and undergraduate including online and experiential study abroad courses) Jenn examines how firms continuously co-create value. Annually, she leads corporate strategy, social impact, and strategy-oriented CSR workshops for Australian, Chilean, and US executives as well as periodically in Brazil, India and Lebanon.

Professor Griffin, an award-winning educator, received the GW School of Business highest teaching award, the Teaching Excellence Award as well as numerous Faculty of the Year awards presented by the MBA Association. Eight times in the past decade (2016-2011, 2009 and 2007) doctoral students nominated her for the Peter J. Vaill Award for Best GWSB Doctoral Professor, while being nominated by millennials for the National Inspire-Integrity Award remains a special honor.

Doug Pinkham

Doug Pinkham is President of the Public Affairs Council, the leading international association for public affairs professionals.

Doug was elected to head the Council in 1997. He has written numerous articles for trade/professional magazines and books and is a frequent speaker on public affairs, politics, communications and corporate management. He has been quoted widely in the print and broadcast media, including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, USA Today, Fox Business News and NPR.

Before joining the Council, Doug was VP of Communications for the American Gas Association, a major trade association representing natural gas distribution companies.

Doug graduated with honors from the College of Wooster in Ohio. While at Wooster, he was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa society.

Doug serves on the board of the Institute for Public Relations and previously served on the International Advisory Board of the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship.

Jason Laird

Jason leads the Corporate Affairs function at NAB, comprising government affairs and public policy; internal, external and social communications; social impact activities and the NAB Foundation. He is responsible for trust and reputation management, crisis response, proactive engagement and key executive and Board counsel.

Jason has worked in and around corporate affairs and the media for more than 30 years, supporting some of Australia and the world’s best-known companies and brands. His experience has been gathered in the United States, across Asia and domestically.

Jason joined NAB in 2018 from Telstra where he led its communications staff for six years. He was previously head of global product and technology communications for General Motors in the United States, head of Corporate Affairs at Holden and a regional communications role for GM Asia-Pacific based in Shanghai. He was a Victorian Government adviser and regional newspaper journalist. He has an MBA from the University of Queensland and is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.