We were privileged to have Amelia Hamer give her “Member Behind the Badge” presentation to the Club Meeting, Tuesday 22nd July. Amelia gave a passionate and humorous presentation of her family life starting in her childhood through to her secondary education and then life at Oxford University where she graduated with a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. At Oxford, Amelia developed an extensive global network of friends from the cohort of other students in her College that are important to her past and future career.
During her time at Oxford, Amelia took challenging roles in the student politics, one of which was as the Editor of the University student newspaper “The Oxford Student”. In this role, she took a principled decision to publish key information to clear a fellow student facing criminal accusations. It was an insight to Amelia’s values, intellect and ethics.
Post graduation from Oxford, Amelia joined Merrill Lynch Bank of America on the trading floor of this global investment bank, as an equities analyst focussed on global luxury brands. Next Amelia joined an investment fund as a venture capital investor negotiating technology deals in Silicon Valley. On returning to Australia, Amelia broadened her experience into superannuation and financial services by joining the staff in the Federal Minister’s office, in Canberra, as a key liaison between the Federal Treasury and the Parliamentary Senate crossbench to ensure passage of legislation. Then, to Melbourne where she worked for a fintech startup Airwallex, before standing as the Liberal candidate in the Federal seat of Kooyong in the May 2025 election. Although unsuccessful this time, she indicated her desire to return to the political field “but that decision is three years away”.
Now as the dust settled on the Federal election campaign, Amelia has recently joined Ord Minnett, a wealth management firm to lead their technology equity research team.
Overall, it was an engaging and impressive presentation where Amelia also talked of her passion for Australia and the importance of maintaining that for future generations. Amelia had the members complete attention (and no nodding off!) with a warm and humorous insight into her life, intellect, values and future direction. The Members showed their appreciation with many questions and generous rounds of applause for a valued member of the Rotary Club Glenferrie community; exceptionally well done, Amelia.
Geoffrey R Widmer
Meeting Chair