Student profiles

David Middleton
Masters of Engineering / Masters of Business

David Middleton said he completed his masters qualifications ‘the old fashioned way’ – with a big package of course notes that arrived in the post.

But there is nothing old fashioned about where the two Deakin University masters degrees have led the engineer, who is set to become CH2M Hill Australia’s Regional Business Group Manager for Water for Australia and New Zealand.

From the time he graduated with a Bachelor of Civil Engineering in 1990, David aimed high.

‘I decided I wanted to complete my two masters degrees before I turned 30,’ he said. ‘I almost made it and I finished my MBA before I was 31.’

Although distance education is now completed with the convenience of the internet, David said the older style held the same advantages.

‘I was working full-time in Shepparton then and I just did not have the time to go to formal lectures,’ he said. ‘The flexibility suited me.’

Completing the two qualifications has undoubtedly boosted David’s career.

‘Having the initial skills and qualifications allowed me to get my first business development role in the water industry,’ he said. ‘Without the Masters in Engineering and a substantial part of the MBA, I would not have got it--they both helped.’

It is the accumulation of qualifications and experience that counts, David said.
‘You build on everything you have done before. Through engineering I have come to understand law, business, finance and the way logistics works. I have been very lucky.’

Work has taken David to 12 different countries in recent years and his career highlights include stints at the Business Schools of both the University of Michigan and Oxford University.  He also was bid director for the Luggage Point Recycled Water Project in Brisbane which will provide high quality recycled water at a time of crippling drought.

Taking on two successive masters degrees was hard work, David said, but he has encouraging words for those considering following in his footsteps: ‘Tell them to do it’.