Staff

Our Master

Associate Professor Xavier Symons is the fifth Master of Warrane College and was appointed in January 2025. He provides overall leadership to the College. He is responsible for the College’s relations with the wider community, the university, other colleges and alumni.

Associate Professor Symons is a leading ethicist, and currently Director of the Plunkett Centre for Ethics at the Australian Catholic University. He is an affiliate of the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University where he worked until recently as a post-doctoral research fellow. In recent years he was a Fulbright Postdoctoral Research Scholar at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University in Washington D.C.

Associate Professor Symons is a well-published contributor in his specialist field, with contributions to the American Journal of Bioethics, the Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, the Journal of Medical Ethics, and the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal. He is the author of the 2022 book Why Conscience Matters: A Defence of Conscientious Objection in Healthcare.

Our Dean

Our Dean

Alex Perrottet became Dean of Warrane College in 2021. He oversees the strategic planning and operations of the College. In addition, he works with the Assistant Deans and Tutors in the implementation of policies relating to the development and welfare of all residents.

He is a trained lawyer and also worked as a broadcast journalist in New Zealand for ten years, working for Radio New Zealand, both as a reporter in the Pacific Islands, and as an editor and newsreader, then as a producer, reporter and presenter of national programmes such as Morning Report and Checkpoint.

He did his undergraduate studies in Arts and Law at The University of Sydney and completed a Postgraduate Diploma of Journalism at Auckland University of Technology. He was awarded honours in his Masters Degree in Communication Studies at Auckland University of Technology in 2015.

He comes from a family of 12 and is right at home in the big family of Warrane.

Assistant Deans

Blaise is Assistant Dean at Warrane, managing the admissions process and extra-curricular activities at the college.

He is a doctoral candidate in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at New York University, where he is the recipient of a Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation World Universities Postgraduate Scholarship. His research focuses on understanding high-achieving schools serving under-resourced communities and their implications for education equity and policy in both the United States and Australia.

Blaise completed a Bachelor of Commerce (with a Co-Op Scholarship in Accounting) and a Master of Teaching at The University of New South Wales. He is originally from Canberra and is a diehard Raiders fan.

Nic is completing his Law and Arts (Western Civilisation) degree as a Ramsay Scholar at The Australian Catholic University. Nic has been a Residential Tutor at Warrane College and a former Sports Director of the Activities Committee. He hails from Canberra and is an avid fan of rugby, history and the liberal arts.