Dr Beibei Zhang, Assistant General Manager, China Merchants Property Development Co. Ltd and a graduate of the University of Newcastle is the 2010 winner of the Australian Education International Young Australian of the Year award. Interview by Sophie Loras.

Profile: Dr Beibei Zhang
Assistant General Manager, China Merchants Property Development Co. Ltd
The University of Newcastle
Winner: Australian Education International Young Australian of the Year award

I initiated my study in Australia in 2001. One of the reasons behind my decision was that I was still young and wanted to learn new things, another reason is that my father had already helped me to make the decision to go Australia to open my mind.
I had been told that Australia was a beautiful country filled with joy, and it is that exactly.

I have lots of sweet memories, especially my time with the Graduate School of Business – University of Newcastle. Newcastle is a beautiful, quiet and nice place. I miss the campus there and miss the seashore around the city.

The best thing I gained from my four and half years study in Australia was my heart becoming open and calm. I made some friendships that will last throughout my life, and I also had some beautiful experience and memories in my personal life that made me love Australia even more.

The most valuable lessons [from the Australian study experience], were the courses in the field of finance which has given me a lot of help in my working life, subjects such as investment, corporate finance, financial statement analysis and strategy management.

On the date I attended my doctorate graduation ceremony, I brought the University of Newcastle one of my paintings – one of my art works for the Watt Gallery named Life—water lily as a gift. My life started there – in Australia.

Over the past two years I have analyzed the development path of China’s property market and indicated trends in based on macroeconomic changes and the sector's business model. I have advised on reform to the business model and found a joint point between property development and property investment, in other words, a crossing point between finance and property development and operation which is now in practice.

We have also set up a short to medium market prediction model by using 20 leading Indicators for target cities based on historical data. The research and development of this model is significant and we have already obtained partial results to use this model to test China’s first-tier cities. This has all been a very rewarding part of my career. ■

To read more about the winners of the 2010 Australia China Alumni Association Awards, click here.

For more information about the Australia China Alumni Association and for the full list of 2010 Australia China Alumni Award finalists, visit: www.austchinaalumni.org