Professor Jeanette Hacket, Vice-Chancellor, Curtin University, 2006–2013.
Hacket was the first female vice-chancellor of Curtin University, a legal practitioner with long-term experience at Curtin in both teaching and senior management roles. She is highly regarded for building strong foundations for the University, in a financially challenging higher education landscape and for further consolidating Curtin’s internationalisation strategy (which began when she was Dean of International Programs at Curtin Business School, and continued with her appointment to the position of Pro Vice-Chancellor, International).
Hacket was highly supportive of Twomey’s aspirations for Curtin to be a player on the world stage and, under her leadership, Curtin jumped in several international rankings that demonstrated its significant research and teaching achievements. These were elevated, in part, by major initiatives that came to fruition in the Hacket era: the Murchison Widefield Array and Square Kilometre Array; the Resources and Chemistry Precinct; the Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute; and the Engineering Pavilion. Hacket embraced the digital revolution in teaching and learning, oversaw planning for the establishment of the Curtin Law School and the Curtin Medical School and championed Curtin’s growth as a knowledge hub and thriving urban precinct through the Greater Curtin development. She left Curtin to retire.