Steven Schwartz has been described as a lanky, cigar-chomping, stove-pipe-hat wearing New Yorker with a mission to transform higher education into a Wall Street wasteland populated by greed-is-good Gordon Gekkos.

This description is not entirely accurate.

Steven is tall but he doesn’t smoke anything, is more often than not seen in T-shirt and jeans, leans more towards Gandhi than Gekko, and the only wasteland he’s interested in is T S Eliot’s.

He was born in New York – but so long ago that he has been an Australian citizen for more than 30 years.

Steven Schwartz is currently the Vice-Chancellor of Macquarie University. He has also served as Vice-Chancellor of Brunel University in London, England and Vice-Chancellor of Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia.

Steven began his undergraduate studies in 1963. The Vietnam War, the civil rights movement and a rebellious attitude toward bureaucratic organisations led to student unrest: building occupations, non-negotiable demands and the predictable police response. Steven missed few opportunities to participate in these important developmental experiences.

Next came graduate school at Syracuse, a university that offered good football for the alumni and good times for the students. As a newly minted PhD, his career took him to universities in Illinois, Texas, Western Australia and Queensland.

At each university, he found staff nostalgic for the good old days-small lectures with adoring students, a quiet lunch in the staff club and plenty of time and money for research. Alas, nostalgia is not what it used to be; the good times always seemed to have ended just before Steven arrived.

Like many research academics, Steven managed to studiously avoid administrative duties until a sudden shift in power landed him as Head of Department, then, in quick succession, Dean of Medicine and Vice-Chancellor. It was this second career in management that helped to form his views of higher education.

Specifically, Steven Schwartz believes that tomorrow’s students must be able to adapt quickly to new circumstances, and be equipped with a way of thinking that is flexible, creative, innovative and responsive.

So that’s what universities should be – flexible, creative, innovative and responsive.

How they achieve that, he believes, is up to them.

In another life Steven Schwartz was a journalist. Today he satisfies his urge to tell the world what he thinks the high-tech way, as a prolific blogger.

Steven is married to Claire, a devastatingly attractive woman, originally from Inverness. His main extracurricular interests are rambling, writing and theatre.

For more information on Steven Schwartz’s career visit the executive website