End of an era

Having served an exceptional 15 years as Head of the Department of Property, it’s not surprising that Professor Deborah Levy leaves a legacy her successor, Professor Prasanna Gai, describes as “quite profound”. “I think the department is, in many respects, synonymous with her,” says Prasanna, who now heads Property as well as the Department of Accounting and Finance and the Department of Economics. “She’s been so influential, and she has built up the external profile of the department in quite a remarkable way.”

Deborah joined the department in 1986 with a three-year contract to lecture in Property – and simply never left. The contract to lecture became a full-time position as a Property Lecturer, then Senior Lecturer, Associate Professor, and finally Professor in 2015. Her remarkable dedication to the department and her countless contributions and achievements over the years were recognised recently with a Special Dean’s Award at the Business School Staff Excellence Awards in August.

Deborah has seen significant change during her lengthy career at the University. In 1986, the department was very small, she notes. “But the enthusiasm among the teaching staff – which included some incredible industry professionals – was tremendous and we were all determined to put this property degree on the map.”

Initially part of the School of Architecture and Planning and later the Faculty of Architecture, Property, Planning and Fine Arts, the department became part of the Business School in 2004. “This brought many opportunities, because property and business are closely related on many levels,” says Deborah. “The opportunity to undertake a conjoint degree brought in a big wave of Bachelor of Commerce students who also wanted a property degree, and gave a big boost to the Bachelor of Property.”

Teaching methods have also become much more sophisticated, she observes. “Teaching now uses many different techniques, including team-based learning, case studies and of course more use of technology.”

What hasn’t changed is the department’s goal to advance the property industry in New Zealand through education and research. “We want to encourage those in the industry to upskill, to educate them that property is far more complex than it used to be, and that new skills are needed,” says Deborah.

As Deborah moves on to the next chapter of her career, Professor Prasanna Gai’s new role marks the latest phase in the Department of Property’s continued evolution. A change in organisational structure within the Business School and the University’s increased emphasis on cross-disciplinary learning has seen the Department of Property join the Department of Accounting and Finance and the Department of Economics under an “umbrella” of groups that Prasanna manages.

“It's more of a ‘one Business School’ mindset,” explains Prasanna. “Previously, a colleague in Economics or Accounting would have had little to do with their counterpart in Property, just because of the siloed nature of departments. It’s about breaking down those barriers – we’re all members of the Business School, and contribute across different areas, both in research and teaching.” It’s about giving people “their own agency”, he adds. “Someone from Property should not feel constrained from wandering across and chatting to someone in Economics and saying ‘Let’s write a paper’ or ‘Let’s co-teach a course’. That’s the dream.”

Prasanna’s career trajectory began at the Bank of England, where he worked as an economist before his growing research interests saw him move to academia; he has been a Professor of Economics at the University of Auckland for the last ten years. He welcomed the opportunity to combine his leadership and change management experience with his academic interests to take on this pivotal role: “My area of specialisation and research interests are financial crises – why do they happen? And to understand that, you need to understand macroeconomics, finance and financial economics, and also property. So with the Business School pivoting towards an ‘all of Business School’ approach, where departments are less siloed, it seemed like a natural [progression] to straddle these three different areas.”

The Business School’s change of focus is a move that reflects a wider societal shift, Prasanna believes. “I think increasingly there’s a sort of push both within and outside the University for people to traverse different areas. There are lots of points of contact with other departments, and we don’t fully exploit them. Students and external stakeholders want people who can touch all those points. Hopefully, in this role, I can bring some of that just by getting people talking to each other. It’s almost as simple as that.”

He's also eager to build the research profile of the department from an internal perspective – “not just within Property, but also in terms of cross-disciplinary collaborations. It’s important to enable the department to be more of a contributor to what the Business School does on the research side. And at a cultural level, I’d like to see the department more involved in the other Business School departments…I think that would be very good for the Business School and good for the department as a citizen within the Business School. And that would help individuals in the group to flourish.”

And flourish they have. Perhaps the biggest testament to Deborah’s inspiring leadership is the increasing success of the department over the years, with the profile of the department – both locally and internationally – and the popularity of the Bachelor of Property programme continuing to grow. It’s certainly one of the achievements she’s most proud of. Despite the department’s steady expansion, however, it seems that the people working within it have always remained a pretty tight-knit group. “Deborah has often pointed out to me how collegial and informal the department is, which I think is great,” says Prasanna. It’s a collegiality he hopes to foster. Along with his overarching goal of “drawing out the synergies” between departments, he ultimately aims to retain a “happy group” – just like the one Deborah joined all those years ago.