This week was the first week of new classes: Organizational Behavior and Individual Federal Income Tax. I do not have classes on Mondays which is a change in pace because I had Fridays off during the last 4-week block. This Friday we got the chance to meet with Bucknell Alumni, Anthony “Tony” Massaro, who is a Real Estate Partner for KordaMentha in Sydney. Over the weekend I went on a Wine Tour in the Hunter Valley with the rest of the students from Bucknell.
Our meeting with Tony Massaro was in his office in the city. His office was on the 7th floor of a office building that overlooked part of Sidney harbor. KordaMentha is a independent advisory and investment firm that provides expert consulting, forensic, real estate, and investment services. Tony graduated from Bucknell in 1993 and was in the ROTC. After his time in the US military, Tony was working for public and private equity firms in New South Wales, Australia. He explained that these experiences allowed him to appreciate Real Estate from a diverse financial perspective. Tony has been with KordaMentha for 1 year and has been living in Australia for 15 years. It was interesting to hear about his experiences in the US and Australia and how he has been able to use his Bucknell education to be successful in his career.
Over the weekend me and the rest of the Bucknell students went on a wine tour in the Hunter Valley. The Hunter Valley is a region of New South Wales that is known globally for its vineyards and wineries. We got to visit 2 different wineries. The fist was a winery was Brokenwood Winery and restaurant. They were best known for their Shiraz (red) and semillon (white) wines. We got to taste both of these wines and a wine from their 2024 batch. Brokenwood only makes 700 cases of this wine and year and it was great to hear about their whole process. the second winery we visited was the Around Hermitage winery. They had many acres of vineyards and they produce about 30,000 cases of their most popular wine. We go to taste 3 different varieties and saw the process of how they make their wine and the casks they use. It was a great experience to see the vineyards and hear about how they source the grapes and make the wine.
