Advantagewa, an award-winning program aimed at bridging the gap between university and the business world, has earned its creator, Tracey Hodgkins, the 2005 Telstra WA Business Woman of the Year award.
Ms Hodgkins was named ahead of 19 other finalists for her role as director of AdvantageWA at Curtin University.
She designed, developed and implem-ented the program for Curtin in 2001.
Since that time Ms Hodgkins has received significant recognition for her work. She received the Prime Minister’s 2003 Business and Higher Education Roundtable award for the development of AdvantageWA as a new standard for entrepreneurial education in Australia.
And earlier this year Ms Hodgkins was named the WA Hudson Community and Government Award winner (for employees of government departments, statutory bodies and not-for-profit organisations), and also mentored Curtin University students to victory in the Students in Free Enterprise World Cup – an annual competition between 1,800 universities.
Other WA business women recognised at the WA Telstra Awards were Keren Paterson, Sandy Cikara and 2005 WA Business News 40under40 winner Nikki Griffiths.
Ms Griffiths, who owns four small businesses in Busselton (including a graphic design business, gifts and fitness training), won the Westpac Business Owner Award (women aged 30 years and under).
At 23, Ms Griffiths started her first business, providing computer training to staff of private companies and today mentors four other business owners.
Ms Cikara, state operations manager for McDonald’s Australia Limited, and Ms Paterson, who is a mine superintendent for Mines and Resources Australia Pty Ltd, won the Australian Government Private and Corporate Sector Award and Panasonic Young Business Women’s Award respectively.
Entrants are judged by a panel of key business people according to criteria including professional achievements, current roles, future plans and leadership style.
The four women will represent WA at the national Telstra Business Women’s Awards in Melbourne later this month.
