Before Stephen Riley (Grad Cert Business Admin ’22; MBA ’24) and Rhetta Chappell (MBA ’24) ever went on a date, they argued in class—nicely, they both insist.
Their first MBA class at Griffith University in August 2021 was Systems Thinking and Innovation, a small face-to-face cohort where only a handful of students regularly spoke up.
“It always felt like it was us doing the talking,” Stephen says. “We had that cheeky eye contact and it built a relationship, literally, across the classroom.”
Before long, the back-and-forth had its own small comic moments. In one early session, Rhetta mentioned she had a podcast. A couple of classes later, Stephen found himself challenging one of her points, only for Rhetta to realise where he had heard it. “On my podcast!” she says, laughing.
But while they clashed in class, the two had very similar reasons for choosing Griffith’s MBA. Rhetta’s work at Griffith’s Relational Insights Data Lab focused on data, partnerships and impact, helping organisations understand what their work was changing in the real world.
She says the MBA aligned with her values. “I loved that it puts the focus on sustainability. Not just in the environmental sense, but the sense of having businesses that support community needs in a sustainable way. I saw a need for that across the data projects I was working on.”
At the time, Stephen was—and still is—Chief Strategy Officer at The BUSY Group, a for-purpose organisation delivering employment, education and community services. He was keen to do a face-to-face MBA—and again, the underlying ethos of the MBA made sense to him. “I wanted to meet interesting people. Plus, I liked the focus on sustainability and community, and I really liked the Griffith values.”
Listening to Stephen talk about BUSY, Rhetta could see a clear fit between her expertise and his ideas. “He was growing an organisation and they needed to measure their impact,” she says. “That’s the kind of work we do. So I gave him a business card.”
That business card soon led to a working relationship. Rhetta’s team went on to collaborate with Stephen and BUSY, building dashboards, bringing together multiple data sources and helping the organisation better understand the impact of its employment services, including programs supporting young people into work.
Meanwhile, their connection continued to build slowly. They kept crossing paths through the MBA, through work and at networking events, where conversations became more casual. Eventually, they went for a drink after one of those events, then a first date in April 2022.
“It wasn’t fireworks or love bubbles all at once,” Rhetta says. “But we built a lot of trust and respect for each other, probably unexpectedly or unintentionally.”
Once they were officially dating, the MBA became part of the relationship itself. They chose to keep taking classes together, often turning coursework into a friendly competition: whoever received the higher mark in a class had to take the other out for lunch. “We’re both deeply competitive,” Stephen says.
They completed the MBA while working full time, taking one subject at a time over three years. When they graduated in December 2024, they had landed on almost exactly the same GPA. “Which was so annoying,” Rhetta says, laughing. “One of us wanted to win.”
By graduation, Stephen and Rhetta were already planning their next chapter. Stephen had spent the previous year helping BUSY expand into the UK and New Zealand, and Canada was emerging as another possibility. Rhetta, who is Canadian, also had family reasons to spend time there.
They moved to Canada for a year in late 2024, taking Rhetta’s son with them. Rhetta continued to lead her Griffith team remotely part time before taking leave, while Stephen worked on BUSY’s North American expansion.
Before they left, Stephen decided to propose. The couple had just graduated, and he planned a day revisiting places from their relationship, ending at Detour in Woolloongabba, the first restaurant where they had gone out for a meal together.
Over dinner, he popped the question with a green sapphire ring.
“It was so thoughtful,” Rhetta says. “I was very, very pampered, and he chose and designed the ring all by himself. I couldn’t have chosen it better.” The next day, Stephen had organised a surprise party with friends, including many from their MBA cohort.
They are now planning an April 2027 wedding in Brisbane/Meanjin, with a ceremony at Howard Smith Wharves—a venue they first visited for an MBA event. And Rhetta is about to take the next step in her career with an exciting new role as Director of Data Linkage at Queensland Health.
A wedding and a life together are certainly not where either of them expected an MBA to lead. But they both agree it was meant to be. “We both see ourselves as very lucky,” Stephen says. “A million things led up to us doing that MBA, being in that room at that point, at that moment, and having that connection.”
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Image captions (top to bottom):
- Stephen & Rhetta with Griffith colleagues, including past Griffith University Vice President IEE Dr Peter Binks, at a Griffith-hosted symphony night at the GU Conservatorium in South Bank, 2022.
- Rhetta at an MBA business school event in August 2022 about macroeconomics post-COVID.
- MBA Graduation, December 2024, Brisbane Convention Centre.
Published 24 September 2026
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