Vice-Chancellor's Fellow: Mr James Fazzino
Mr James Fazzino comes to La Trobe fresh from a successful career in the international chemicals industry, and has just concluded a highly successful eight-year term as Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Incitec Pivot Limited.
He also served as the Chief Financial Officer and Finance Director at Incitec, and had senior finance roles in ICI/Orica including CFO Chemicals Group, Assistant Treasurer and Head of Investor Relations.
Under his leadership, Incitec was transformed from a fertiliser co-operative, operating in four Australian states with an enterprise value of $400 million, to a Global Diversified Industrial Chemicals company, operating in 13 countries and with an enterprise value of $8 billion. It is now the world’s second largest supplier of commercial explosives, and Australia’s largest manufacturer and supplier of fertilisers.
Mr Fazzino is also passionate about gender diversity, and oversaw a doubling of the number of women in senior management at Incitec since 2012.
Mr Fazzino is already strongly connected to La Trobe. He is currently a member, and was formerly chair, of the La Trobe Business School Advisory Board, and in 2016 was appointed as an Adjunct Professor in the La Trobe Business School.
Mr Fazzino is a La Trobe University alumnus. The first member of his family to attend university, he obtained a Bachelor of Economics (Honours) from the University.
Mr Fazzino will advise the Vice-Chancellor as well as the current and future leadership of the La Trobe Business School on the strategic directions for the School.
Head of the La Trobe Business School, Professor Paul Mather, said students would benefit greatly from Mr Fazzino’s expertise and experience in leading an ASX Top 50 company.
“As Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, he will share his experience with the next generation of leaders, and will play an instrumental role in building critical industry and research links in the School,” Professor Mather said.
“He will bring cutting-edge business practice into the classroom and the curriculum and assist in developing a network of business practitioners to help add to the Business School’s capacity to educate its students for the jobs of the future. He will also be available to mentor both staff and students, and will broker partnerships to help deliver the vision of the University’s new strategic plan to put an outstanding student experience at the heart of everything we do.”