Celebrating our colleagues: Daniel Tackage

Daniel Tackage, Global Partnerships Manager, External Engagement.

Let me come straight out and say that my favourite food is my mum’s spaghetti Bolognese. There’s a chance that she’ll find out that I’ve done this interview and so if I can give her a shout-out right from the start, it’ll keep her happy.

Actually, spaghetti and I have got a bit of a history together. I used to work for San Remo Macaroni Company as a brand manager for Fantastic Snacks, which is one of their subsidiary noodle brands. So it’s safe to say that I’ve eaten quite a lot of spaghetti and noodle varieties in my time.

Post ‘noodle phase’, I branched off into the entirely unrelated field of international student recruitment. I started off with Kaplan (what is now University of Adelaide College), recruiting international students into Foundation Studies, which was actually a really fulfilling experience. I’d meet the students (and often their parents) overseas and then they’d come to campus and within a year they’d graduate from the Foundation program and then you’d see them on campus the following year. It was great to watch how transformative the university experience was to their lives.

In recruitment, I’d come home from a trip, take the clothes out of the suitcase and pack it up again to leave … I was doing a lot of that kind of travel in my late 20s to early 30s and it was good because I got to see the world and now that knowledge is good for this role … but I don’t miss the amount of travel I used to have to do, particularly because a lot of the time the only part of a country I’d see was an airport, hotel room and an exhibition hall, so it was all a bit of a tease.

The pollution can get really bad in Delhi too, so that’s one of the first things you notice. At certain times of the year, visibility is really limited, but the upside for me is that I don’t think I would have been lucky enough to get engaged if it weren’t for the poor visibility.

When I’d come back to Adelaide, I was always like “why is it so quiet here?” because in Delhi it was just constant noise. It’s not like it gets to 7pm and things shut down … it has a pulse 24/7.

It took a bit of getting used to, but when you start getting things organised, like getting your phone working and getting a bank account, parts of it were actually really good. I lived with two other ex-pats and actually lived a fairly comfortable life. In terms of travel it was also really convenient – it’s a big international airport so you can get to a range of places easily.

I eventually returned to Australia and began working in international student recruitment at the University of Queensland. When Covid came along, international student recruitment really died off … but by then I’d been doing the same sort of work for quite a long time and it was time for a change. I really wanted to do something similar-but-different which attracted me to this role in global partnerships because I still get to meet a lot of people, but with a much broader and strategic focus than just the student market. The role’s focus on South Asia is a natural fit for me, plus being based in Adelaide means that I get to see more of how the University actually works.

One of the best parts of my current role is working with so many different people, both within the University, and externally. And this will sound cliché, but literally no days are the same. I kind of have a routine, but at the same time I don’t.

I work with a lot of different people from all around the University so I learn a lot about what the University does, as well as what a lot of people here are working on. This is perfect for me because I can facilitate relationships with likeminded colleagues overseas … so it really feels like I’m helping people.

I’m an alumnus of this university with a Masters in Commerce (Marketing) and the skills from my education have been directly transferable for this role.

For example, with different international markets you have to figure out where to focus, what to prioritise, where to spend the money, how to position the University, which programs to focus on … so a general business knowledge is very handy for recruitment roles … and I’ve found that the problem solving skills I developed during my tertiary years here are always useful.

It's been a long road that’s brought me back to this university and this city. Being away for so long heightens your awareness of why Adelaide is so good in many different ways. I enjoy being able to walk to work every day, and no longer take the clean air and convenience of the city for granted. Plus the lifestyle here is quite cosy. But if Mum asks, just tell her I moved back for her spag bol.

Story by Dr Simon Behenna, Internal Communications Coordinator

Photography by Isaac Freeman, Communications Assistant