Monash Business School academics take out top university honours
26 November 2025
Five Monash Business School academics have been recognised for their standout contributions to teaching, research, and leadership at this year’s Vice-Chancellor’s Excellence Awards.
The awards recognise staff whose work strengthens student learning, drives high-impact research, and supports excellence across the university.
The accolades also included a rare business school milestone – its second-only inductee into the Monash Honour Roll for outstanding service.
Shaping the future of a faculty
Monash Honour Roll: Professor Michelle Welsh
Professor Michelle Welsh, Senior Deputy Dean, Faculty Operations
Few academics have left as comprehensive a mark on a faculty as Professor Michelle Welsh.
Over a 30-year career at Monash, her influence is evident across everything from curriculum design to faculty culture.
As Senior Deputy Dean (Faculty Operations), she oversees more than 500 academic and professional staff, managing the systems and processes that keep one of Australia’s largest business schools running smoothly.
From 2015 to 2020, she led the Department of Business Law and Taxation, enhancing teaching quality and strengthening academic standards.
Alongside her leadership roles, Professor Welsh is one of Australia’s leading authorities in corporate law enforcement, regulatory accountability, and compliance.
Her expertise is recognised across the profession: she is a member of the Law Council of Australia’s Corporations Committee, a Research Member of the European Corporate Governance Institute, and a former President of the Society of Corporate Law Academics.
A long-time advocate for equity and inclusion, she has oversight of the Equity, Diversity and Social Inclusion Committee, chairs the Faculty's Wellbeing Committee and champions initiatives supporting women in academia.
Mentorship programs and performance frameworks have strengthened promotion pathways and fostered a more transparent, inclusive culture of academic progression.
Unaware she had even been nominated, Professor Welsh said she was genuinely surprised by the Honour Roll induction.
“One of the things that motivates me is a desire to use the opportunities afforded by the leadership roles I have held to make a difference,” Prof Welsh said.
“To be recognised for the leadership I have provided means a lot to me.”
Our Vice-Chancellor’s Excellence Award 2025 winners
Making analytics accessible
Award for Teaching Excellence (General): Dr Jessica Leung
Dr Jessica Leung
In a field often seen as abstract, Dr Jessica Leung has done the near-impossible: she has made decision analytics so engaging that enrolments have quadrupled since 2023.
In her classroom, students dive into live coding, collaborative projects, and exercises that mirror global industry practice.
It's an approach that builds students’ skills, confidence, and professional identity, earning her top student evaluation scores.
The Econometrics and Business Statistics lecturer’s innovative methods have earned global recognition, with her teaching resources and contributions to professional certification shaping how analytics education is taught worldwide.
Turning classrooms into climate frontlines
Award for Innovation in Learning and Teaching: Annemarie Conrath-Hargreaves, Associate Professor Ting-Chiao Huang, Dr Ashna Prasa
Left to right: Dr Annemarie Conrath-Hargreaves, A/Prof Ting-Chiao Huang,
Dr Ashna Prasad
Most business courses teach responsible management.
In their Responsible Management Learning program, Dr Annemarie Conrath-Hargreaves and her team take it a step further, placing students at the centre of real-world ecological challenges.
Using immersive, technology-driven experiences, they explore issues from coral reef bleaching to Indigenous stewardship of Country, gaining first-hand insight into complex socio-ecological systems.
More than 400 students have participated, with the strongest gains among international and female learners.
Graduates are already bringing these experiences to industry, turning classroom insight into tangible environmental and societal impact.
Mapping the hidden architecture of human behaviour
Researcher of the Year (HAAS): Professor Yves Zenou
Yves Zenou, Professor, Richard Snape Chair
Network economics was once considered a niche field, but Professor Yves Zenou has turned it into a global force.
His research, spanning crime, social networks, and public policy, reveals the hidden patterns that shape human behaviour.
He has applied his models in real-world contexts: mapping criminal networks in Sweden, advising UK law enforcement on resource allocation, and analysing systemic risks during the 2008 global financial crisis.
With more than 150 publications and over 23,000 citations, Prof Zenou is recognised as one of the world’s most influential economists.
He holds prestigious fellowships with the Econometric Society, the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, and is a Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
At Monash, he has elevated the business school’s international profile, inviting world-leading scholars, including Nobel Laureates, and establishing a PhD summer school and a major international conference, now key fixtures on the global research calendar.