Alumni profile

Ahmed Fahour AO is a former Managing Director and CEO at Australia Post.

After Ahmed left Australia Post in 2017, he joined BCG Digital Ventures as non-executive chairman for Asia-Pacific. He has recently been appointed CEO of Latitude Financial Services.

He holds a Bachelor of Economics from La Trobe, and is a member of the Class of 1987.

Ahmed notes the diversity of La Trobe is what made him feel at home.

“La Trobe University in the mid-80s was the United Nations in Australia and you felt completely okay,” Ahmed said.

“It’s the university for people who do come from a diverse background, who do live in the northern corridors, and those people who enjoy being part of the multicultural Australia that we have.”

In his first couple of years of his course, Ahmed said he wasn’t performing as well as he would have liked. But that changed in his final year when he had a breakthrough moment.

“University learning is not about memorisation. It’s about actually saying… ‘What is it exactly that they’re trying to teach us?’," he said.

“The best students are the ones who create their own methodology, their own framework, by questioning what’s there and improving [it].”

But it seems Ahmed’s university journey wasn’t just about studying.

“I was very fortunate to be the Donald Whitehead prize-winner in economics. I remember there was a quite a large gift of cash. It was around the same year that the pub was opened up at La Trobe,” he said. 

“One of the professors said ‘Your shout is the next shout.’ So he took the money and put it on [the bar]. Then it just kept going all night. Literally every dollar disappeared before I got home.”

Ahmed's final word on La Trobe?

“You will look back and say ‘Those were the best years of my life’.”

Distinguished Business and commerce

Last updated: 16th May 2019