AIB welcomes new CEO Paul Wappett on board

It has been an exciting month at the Australian Institute of Business (AIB) as we have welcomed to the team a new Chief Executive Officer – Paul Wappett.

An experienced CEO in the education sector, Paul previously held the position of Chief Executive Officer at Open Universities Australia (OUA). Under Paul’s leadership, OUA has evolved to become a leading institution in learning design for online education, educational content production and the use and development of learning technologies and platforms.

A lawyer by profession, Paul’s other previous positions have included legal and commercial roles at CPA Australia, the Western Bulldogs Football Club, Mobil Oil Australia and law firm Clayton Utz. He is also currently the Chairman of Berry Street, the largest child protection agency in Victoria.

Reflecting on his appointment as CEO, Paul shared, “I am excited to be working with the progressive and student-focused team at AIB. Completing my MBA was a life-changing experience for me in the early 2000s and having the opportunity to help people boost their careers through access to a quality, reasonably-priced MBA that can be fit around their lifestyles is a dream job for me. I’ve felt very welcomed by the team here and look forward to the year ahead.”

The appointment comes after rapid growth for AIB, which has led to it becoming the largest MBA provider in Australia with over 5,000 current students domestically and internationally. To further enhance its services to meet student needs, AIB has invested significantly in its interactive online learning environment and infrastructure, redefining learning for working adults with its flexible, 100% online delivery.

Previous CEOs, Joel and Sanjay Abraham, have been with AIB for more than a decade and will remain with the business as Non-Executive Directors. Under their joint leadership, they led immense growth at AIB, building the institution to what it is today.

Joel Abraham said “We’re proud of our achievements as Joint-CEO’s which include leading the institution to achieve market leadership, and more recently, driving transformational change. AIB is now positioned for continued growth in Australia with expansion internationally. We undertook an extensive CEO search to find the right leader to succeed us and will continue to support Paul to take the institution forward,” Mr Abraham said.

Despite significant growth over the years, AIB’s commitment to delivering life-changing experiences for its students has not wavered. AIB’s history dates date back to 1984 when Emeritus Professor Selva Abraham, father of Joel and Sanjay Abraham, founded Gibaran Learning Group, offering short-term business courses for executives. From the day that Professor Abraham set out to provide business education, he knew that it had to be delivered in a way that could be applied to real-world business challenges.

In 1995, Gibaran obtained accreditation to deliver its first higher education course, and by 2002, it was delivering the full suite of business degrees, including the prestigious Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD).

Over the years, the demand for quality business education increased, seeing Gibaran rebrand to the Australian Institute of Business (AIB) in 2011. Today, AIB is the largest MBA provider in Australia and has students and alumni from over 90 countries.