Martin Haese is currently the General Manager of the Rundle Mall Management Authority with more than 25 years experience, in the fields of retailing, innovation and entrepreneurship

Having founded, built and sold a number of businesses, Martin travelled the journey from small business owner to CEO of a retail company with 16 store locations, 220 employees and annual sales of AUD$25M.

An AIB graduate himself, Martin has taught on the Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Adelaide for number of years.

He comments “the AIB format works because I think it's very, very user friendly for busy professionals and in a nut shell that's it's really powerful value proposition. It's weekend based, it's an intensive programme but it's also very collaborative so small class sizes enables you to learn a lot from your lecturer and participate very actively.

Martin has a deep appreciation for the roles that networks, influential leadership, perseverance, strategic management, operational excellence and innovative thinking all play in bringing about sustainable and improved commercial outcomes.

Highlighting the role of an AIB facilitator, Martin said “The difference between facilitating and lecturing is really profound. Facilitating is very interactive whereas lecturing is more of a one way programme, it's more of a one way street. When you're facilitating you're harvesting and inviting information back from our students and you're sharing information and sharing your experiences. That is, student to student, student to facilitator and back. That coupled with the smaller class size is really powerful because you learn more, you absorb more and I think most importantly you retain more.