“One of my favourite childhood books was My Brilliant Career and Marcia Devlin embodies both the spirit and the title of that Australian classic. I was privileged to witness her time and impact at Victoria University as Senior DVC and saw first hand the energy, commitment, hard graft and authenticity she brought to the role.
Marcia inspired many with her razor sharp mind and wit, her deep understanding and application of leading by example and her seemingly endless capacity to ‘get things done’. Strategic, pragmatic and supportive are words often used in association with Marcia. Her diverse extensive experience in both education and leadership and her willingness to share and learn from successes and failures, is refreshing and invaluable in creating a positive and productive workplace culture.
Marcia is a proud advocate for people whose voice is sometimes silenced or overlooked. I particularly appreciated that she sets high expectations for herself and for others and approaches professional challenges with an equal mix of directness and collaborative support.
Marcia Devlin will always be a huge asset to whomever she chooses to work with. She will also remain, in my estimation, as one of the best leaders I’ve seen over my 25+ year career. ”
Dianne Semmens, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Victoria University.
“Marcia was a senior academic leader at Deakin University, where we worked together. Marcia understands how to create and communicate a vision, develop consensus, motivate colleagues from a wide range of backgrounds and get the best out of individuals and teams. As well as being a highly skilled academic, she has considerable expertise in strategy development and implementation, as well as in human and financial resource and risk management. Marcia is a natural leader.”
Professor Karen Starr, Partner SHK Asia Pacific
“It’s rare to meet a senior leader in Higher Education with the same level of integrity, compassion, and drive as Marcia. She is an exemplary role model for exceptional leadership in academia. Marcia was generous with her time and gave me some critical career and life advice that I still pass on to other women who are navigating the challenging intersection of family and work. I value Marcia’s vision and commitment- she is an aspirational, unstoppable force in academia and beyond!”
Associate Professor Zali Yager, Researcher
“Working with Marcia on the Open Universities Australia (OUA) Executive team, I have had ample opportunity to see how she operates. Marcia is great to work with and is an exceptional executive. She leads by example and has established a warm, obvious rapport with her teams. Her strong commercial acumen and extensive understanding of the university sector brings rare and valuable insight to the executive team and to the formulation of broader company strategy. Her acknowledged expertise in the areas of student experience and retention has proved invaluable to the formulation of my teams’ customer experience programs.”
Peter McMahon
Director – Digital UX, Marketing & Communications at State Library Victoria
“Marcia is passionate about the student experience of education and is one of those rare breeds that can combine that passion with a drive to meet organisational goals for commercial success. She has great wisdom on what works in education and the consultative style to easily transpose that wisdom into actions that deliver results.”
Michelle Beverage
Chief Information Officer at Intrepid Group
“Marcia is an incredible person and I was lucky to have worked with her. She is extremely talented, a leader in her field and a leader by example. I can truely say Marcia is one of the most intelligent and genuine people I have worked with. I would happily endorse Marcia’s skills and ability as a leader in Education and Strategy and in People leadership. I will miss working with Marcia and I hope I get the chance to work with her in the future.”
Anthony Russo
CTO, SACS Consulting
“Marcia is an exceptional leader, manager and mentor. Highly intelligent, outstanding academic knowledge, sound commercial acumen, supportive and great to work for and with.”
Vincent Creighton
Co-CEO, Academy Xi
“Marcia is an approachable and knowledgeable academic who manages people who report to her sensitively and mindfully. At the time I reported to Marcia, I was impressed with her business acumen and skills as well as her academic knowledge and experience.”
Nicholas John Vardaxis
GM at Vardaxis Higher Education Consulting
“Marcia was Director of the Centre I worked for for a number of years. She is an outstanding Director, has excellent people management skills, and always gets the best out of her staff. We worked together on a book published with Emerald and her contributions were essential to the outcome of that project. She has exceptional skills in a number of areas of higher education, and I recommend her highly.”
Associate Professor Martin Davies
Principal Fellow, Melbourne Graduate School of Education
“Marcia is one of the most positive, hardworking and smartest academics I have come across. She sets high standard on herself but is always helpful to guide those who are less experienced than her.”
Associate Professor Fion Lim
Member International Committee, Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority