Read more about Jackie's story

Jackie Yong is an experienced accountant who still works professionally within the finance industry while studying and lecturing at the University of Newcastle Sydney.

"My specialty has been working with high net-worth individuals and within investment banking, but my finance background led me to working in investor relations. I worked in an organisation with six publicly listed companies. It was an interesting time when I started the investor relations department and then build it up to the corporate communications division.My focus then was on social responsibility."

Jackie has existing links to Australia and moved here with her family after working with a Swiss investment bank.

"We came here after having children and I was asked if I'd be interested in wealth management. It's a global profession so accounting and compliance issues and so on are similar around the world. I enjoy the opportunities to teach."

The diversity and significance of Jackie's professional experience and networks are of benefit to her students. She always strives to ensure that her students are well-equipped when they graduate.

"I love teaching. I'm currently doing my PhD after a long professional career in the industry but I love hearing from my students as they head into new careers. We see our students being asked to interviews before they sit their final exams. That's incredibly satisfying and the students obviously value the experience of their lecturers."

Jackie Yong's international experience as a professional within accounting and finance means she is well placed to offer pathway guidance to students.

"Our students are offered advice and guidance, not just lectures. Learning how to learn is really important and sometimes the challenge for a student can seem very complicated to them. My ability to teach the students and in turn make them learn to synthesise the theories and apply them onto real industry situations becomes another part of their learning experience. I find this the most gratifying part of being an academic."

"I've been teaching for a decade now and both domestic and international students are becoming increasingly demanding of themselves. They want to learn, they want to ask questions, and this is great as it means that we get to push ourselves as academics and examine our own level of critical thinking and problem solving."

The state-of-the-art facilities and collaborative learning spaces at the University of Newcastle, Sydney provide students with a world-class learning experience.