Senior staff

Paul Wappett is the Chief Executive Officer of Open Universities Australia. Paul was appointed to the position on 13 February 2012. Prior to his employment with Open Universities Australia, Paul was the Executive General Manager Strategy for CPA Australia. In his role there, Paul was responsible for CPA Australia’s positioning in the external market, how CPA Australia measured its performance and for ensuring CPA Australia had the organisational capacity to deliver on its business promises.

A lawyer by profession, Paul's previous positions have included legal roles at Clayton Utz and Mobil Oil Australia, and commercial roles with Mobil and the Western Bulldogs Football Club.

Paul is also the Chairman of Berry Street, the largest child protection agency in Victoria.

Key responsibilities include; financial management, business analytics, risk management and assurance, budgets and financial forecasting, treasury, capital management, mergers and acquisitions.

John brings many years of senior finance executive experience across a number of different industries with previous roles as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Red Cross Blood Service, CFO of ASX listed, Freshtel Limited in the internet telephony space, CFO of Sensis Pty Ltd in the advertising, online and digital space as well as other senior finance roles at Telstra, Email Limited and Amcor Limited.  John has significant experience with business development in Asia, mergers and acquisitions, organisational efficiency, financial strategy and is passionate about building strong finance teams to partner with the business.

John is Chair of the Internal Audit Committee for the Legal Services Commission and also a member of the Audit Committee for the Australian Centre for Moving Image (ACMI)

Michelle Beveridge joined Open Universities Australia in 2010 as the General Manager of Operations to lead and provide oversight to the core operating infrastructure of OUA.

Her responsibilities include managing the operations of the Business Solutions Group, Information & Communication Technologies, Human Resources thus is responsible for the people, systems and processes of the company.

Initially pursuing a career in accounting (CPA), and later in Information Technology, Michelle has leveraged these combined skills to facilitate significant business change programs.

In her role at IDP Education, Michelle's focus was on transitioning the ICT services from the company's 40+ year history as a low technology user to a commercial entity that recognized the high value ICT can contribute to the company's continued growth and competitive advantage. She had successfully transformed teams that were isolated from the business into teams that were praised by the business for their effective customer engagement and achievement of business improvements.

Michelle is also the Chairman of the Victorian ICT for Women Network, Treasurer of Australian Computer Society (Vic), a Trustee for the Queen Victoria Women's Centre and Advisory Board member for the CIO Executive Council (APAC).

Michelle studied at University of New South Wales completing her Master Business Administration (Executive), and Charles Sturt University for her Bachelor of Business.

Peter McMahon joined Open Universities Australia (OUA) in 2011 as the Executive Director of Marketing, Sales and Digital.

Key responsibilities include managing OUA’s mainstream marketing and digital teams, and guiding the evolution of the OUA brand. Peter is responsible for developing and managing the OUA customer experience, as well as managing the company’s sales performance and those teams charged with providing high quality service and sales assistance to OUA’s retail, corporate and international customers.

Peter brings a wealth of knowledge to OUA with a background spanning a broad spectrum of industries and disciplines. With over 23 years experience in marketing and media and more than a decade of those spent in the digital space, he has worked as the client, the media and the agency. Peter was also part of the team that developed and floated one of Australia’s first true online agencies during the dot.com boom.

As the Marketing Manager for Tatts.com, Peter oversaw the creation and evolution of Tattersall's revenue-generating online channels and later took on the position of Interactive Marketing and Channel Manager at Tattersall's, where he had commercial responsibility for the presentation, turnover, marketing and customer support for Tattersall's online lotto channels. More recently, Peter was Group Manager - Interactive Strategy for Tatts Group Limited.

Peter’s extensive experience also includes time as a Sales Manager (Australian Financial Review), Media Director (WSA Media) and as the founder of Affiniti Digital in 2009.