Aspirall CEO never declared conflict before securing UOW work

Diesel then shaped report for VC selection

Jun 30, 2026

Aspirall CEO Tanya Diesel spoke of her dealing with UOW Chancellor Michael Still and the former chief governance officer Alyssa White. Image by Google Gemini

The chief executive of a consulting firm at the heart of Operation Scandi never declared a conflict of interest before her firm was engaged by the University of Wollongong — despite a 22-year relationship with the Chancellor who put her there. She went on to shape a report destined for the Vice-Chancellor selection committee.

Tanya Diesel, CEO and founder of Aspirall Consulting International, confirmed under oath on Tuesday that no one at UOW asked whether her decades-long ties to Chancellor Michael Still posed a conflict of interest before her firm was contracted in August 2024. No declaration was sought. No tender was required.

The relationship ran deep. Mr Still had written references for Aspirall with Ernst & Young, Microsoft, NSW Treasury and Hydro Tasmania. He had steered Ms Diesel toward consulting opportunities at organisations where he sat on the board. He and his partner had dined with her. He had attended the launch of her poetry collection.

When Counsel Assisting Emma Bathurst put to Ms Diesel that the relationship had “developed into a friendship,” Diesel pushed back hard. “I have a long-term business association with him over 22 years. I do not have a friendship with him.”

Commissioner Paul Lakatos SC pressed her to define the line. A friend, Diesel said, was “someone from whom I ask emotional support ... people who I go on picnics and holidays with ... people that deeply understand my personal background.” Still, she insisted, didn’t meet that bar.

Sections stripped from the final report

The inquiry heard how a draft report on the Vice-Chancellor recruitment process, meant to inform the selection committee, changed materially between its first and final versions, after Ms Diesel met with Mr Still and then-chief governance officer Alyssa White. A section titled “Chancellor’s Outcomes,” laying out what Mr Still wanted from the focus groups, was cut before the report was finalised. So was a lengthy section titled “Deeper Observations.”

Ms Diesel couldn’t recall specifically why either was removed, but agreed it was likely the changes followed her September 13, 2024, meeting with the pair: “We would have listened and adjusted - that’s the purpose of a draft.”

She went further. Ms Diesel agreed she had been “particularly influenced” by Mr Still’s views in finalising the leadership requirements that ultimately landed in the report sent to the selection committee, pointing to the esteem in which she held him and a relationship dating back to 2004.

White makes contact

A text message from January 31, 2024 ,shows Mr Still telling Ms Diesel to let him know when she heard from UOW’s Vice-Chancellor. Five months later, Mr Still’s then-assistant Jou-An Chen emailed Ms Diesel to set up an introductory meeting with White - explicitly “on the recommendation of Chancellor Michael Still.” It was at that meeting that Ms White outlined two proposed programs of work for Aspirall. Ms Diesel said the email came as a surprise: she hadn’t, she told the inquiry, discussed any specific opportunity with Mr Still beforehand.

The money

Aspirall landed three separate engagements. The first - the Vice-Chancellor recruitment consultation - was worth $49,600, paid in full. The second, a council and university executive leadership workshop, started at $50,800 plus GST before scope creep pushed it to $55,500, then $56,600, signed off by Ms White in February 2025. A third, covering broader senior leadership engagement, was valued at $163,800 - but never went ahead.

Ms Bathurst also raised an invitation Ms Diesel sent Mr Still asking to bring Ms White to an Aspirall client retreat. Retreat costs are typically picked up by the executive’s organisation, meaning UOW would have worn the bill had White turned up. She didn’t.

The sharpest moment came when Ms Bathurst asked whether Ms Diesel’s admiration for Mr Still — she’d once described him in writing as showing “impeccable and deeply thoughtful leadership” — could have coloured Aspirall’s work. Diesel pointed to internal consulting psychology supervision as a safeguard. Pressed further, she conceded: “It could, it could be so.”

ICAC has made no findings in Operation Scandi. All named individuals are subject to allegations at a public inquiry.