Rotary Melbourne welcomed and inducted Will Abdo on 18 September 2024 with the classification of Business Development Executive. Will is a member of the Central 1 Rotary group.
Will was born in Beirut, Lebanon and migrated with his family to Melbourne, Australia in December, 1976. He was educated at Williamstown High School and Victoria University completing an Accounting Business degree in 1986 and a Graduate Diploma in Computer Science in 1990.
Directly from university he joined Standard and Poor’s, a corporate credit rating agency working as a Financial Analyst before joining BHP Petroleum as a Business Analyst whilst undertaking further studies in Computer Science.
He later joined Telstra as a Marketing and Business Analyst until setting up his own Business Analytics and Trade Marketing company in July, 2000 called Webtrade Marketing Pty Ltd, which he is currently the CEO. He worked for a number of clients including corporations and exporters in his capacity as a consultant.
Will was on the Management Committee and the National Board Adviser to the Australia Arab Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a peak body in two-way trade located at the International Chamber House.
He was also a part-time tax agent looking after individual and small business clients, managing their accounting and lodging tax returns, whilst running his marketing company.
He joined the Australian Arabic Council (AAC) as a volunteer in 1995, which is a non-profit organisation focusing on building and enhancing community relations and promoting human rights. He represented the AAC at various high-profile meetings and events including Government, Media, Business and Community. In 2002, AAC was awarded the Human Rights Community Award by the Australian Human Rights Commission. Will is currently the Executive Director of AAC.
Will was the Assistant Vice President of Universal Peace Federation Australia (UPF) which is a global Peacebuilding NGO in General Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. In his leadership role with UPF which he held for over five and a half years, he assisted in the organization of high-level meetings, events and webinars addressing pressing issues facing our globe today.
He is a member of the Languages Advisory Board at Deakin University.
Will enjoys cycling, walking and listening to music.
