AFR Top100 Future Leaders announce Business School winners

​A record-breaking 27 students from UNSW Sydney have been named in the Top100 Future Leaders Awards. It's the highest number of students to be selected from one institution since the inception of the awards in 2014. Of those 27 high-performing students, 20 are from UNSW Business School - ten of whom are completing double degrees.

The Top100 Future Leaders awards, jointly hosted by GradConnection and The Australian Financial Review, aim to connect emerging talent from Australia's graduate pool with leading employers. Students took part in a highly competitive process, including psychometric testing, video interviews, a three-minute presentation, and participation in an assessment event with top employers.

"UNSW Business School prides itself on the achievements of our students. I am delighted with the results of the AFR Top100 and with UNSW being recognised as having the most employable students," said UNSW Business School Dean, Professor Chris Styles.

"We have responded to the changing nature of work in the way we teach business. Our students develop an advantage through close industry partnerships and work-integrated learning opportunities with Career Accelerator, our suite of professional development opportunities.

"With the new UNSW 3+ academic calendar, our students now have the flexibility to take part in more internships, and more extra-curricular activities that develop industry connections through clubs and societies."

The UNSW Accounting Society (AccSoc) won the inaugural Top100 award for Most Engaged Student Society. The winner of this category is based on the number of references made to the Society in individual applications to the AFR Top100. The Society had three students in the Top100, including the current President and fourth-year Commerce/Law student, Daniel Wang.

AccSoc has a formal partnership with UNSW Business School, working with Career Accelerator and the School of Accounting to provide members with industry-specific information to achieve career goals. Last year AccSoc delivered almost 50 events to more than 1400 students, including a mock-recruitment process for a sponsoring organisation. AccSoc sponsors include Chartered Accountants, ACCA, BCG, Clayton Utz, CPA Australia, BDO, HLB Mann Judd, MARS and JP Morgan. 

The Top100 Future Leaders are divided into nine sponsored award categories. UNSW had finalists in every category and won three. Two category winners were Business School students Kevin Surjadi and Arthur Chao.

The Westpac Banking, Insurance and Financial Services Award winner Arthur Chao has completed six internships in the four years of his degree to date. The most recent, facilitated by the UNSW Business School, was at ASIC during the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry. In 2019, Mr Chao took a term off – with the added flexibility offered by UNSW3+ – to travel and complete an internship in Hong Kong.

"At ASIC I worked on a market strategic overview of insider trading levels," Mr Chao said. "It was a fantastic experience and a great time to be there with everything going on with the royal commission. Ultimately, the capital markets space – the institutional banking side – is where I want to be.

"I'm very grateful for the Industry Experience Program (COMM2222) at UNSW Business School. UNSW is a very professionally orientated university. The Career Accelerator team helped me motivate myself to go out and look for internships to prepare for graduate life."

The full Business School student results are as follows:

Ashurst Law Award
Finalist: Helen Zhang (Commerce / Law).

BP Sales and Marketing Award
Finalists: Eric Chen (Commerce Co-op), Aleisha Hewett (Commerce), William Ji (Commerce Co-op), Kerrie Ka Yi Leung (Commerce Co-op).

Broadspectrum Innovation Award
Finalists: Charmaine Batulan (Information Systems Co-op (Hons)), Shaantam Dar (Commerce), Aileen Lu (Engineering (Hons) / Commerce), Simran Narsinghani (Commerce / Economics).

Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand Accounting Award
Finalists: Steven Chieng (Commerce / Media (PR & Advertising), Jacqueline Liu (Commerce / Economics).
Winner: Kevin Surjadi (Commerce).

Coles IT Award
Finalists: Arkhil Bonu (Business Information Systems Co-op (Hons)), David Hwang (Commerce / Information Systems), Richard Jiang (Computer Science / Commerce).

Quantium Data Science Award
Finalist: Shelley Agrawal (Actuarial Studies / Commerce).

Westpac Banking, Insurance and Financial Services Award
Finalists: Sunny Lin (Actuarial Studies / Commerce), Daniel Wang (Commerce / Law), Matthew Yan (Commerce).
Winner: Arthur Chao (Commerce / Arts).

More information about the awards, and individual profiles of the Top100 Future Leaders, can be found on the GradConnection website.