Taking the reins
Charlotte is building a purpose‑driven career through sport, storytelling and service
When Charlotte Drynan decided to combine the marketing and communications skills she acquired at Bond University with her lifelong passion for equestrian, there was only one place she looked, at the iconic Badminton Estate in the Cotswolds. In May, fresh from graduating with a double degree in International Relations and Business, with a major in marketing and communications, Drynan joined the marketing team for the five-star Badminton Horse Trials.
In the equestrian world, Badminton is sacred ground. The world's best combinations converge on rolling English parkland to test themselves across dressage, cross country and showjumping.
It is tradition, theatre and elite sport stitched together
For Drynan it ticked off a personal milestone and served as a launchpad for her professional long game — Brisbane 2032, when the Olympic equestrian disciplines will be staged in her home region.
But long before Olympics or five-star marketing campaigns entered the frame, Drynan arrived at Bond with a very clear ambition.
She was going to work in the not-for-profit sector.
As a Vice Chancellor Elite Scholar, she stepped onto campus with a strong sense of responsibility to give back.
It is tradition, theatre and elite sport stitched together
For Drynan it ticked off a personal milestone and served as a launchpad for her professional long game — Brisbane 2032, when the Olympic equestrian disciplines will be staged in her home region.
But long before Olympics or five-star marketing campaigns entered the frame, Drynan arrived at Bond with a very clear ambition.
“I initially chose to study business because I wanted to work in the not-for-profit sector,” she says.
“I’ve always been really drawn to NGOs, particularly around women’s rights and development.”
That ambition quickly turned into action.
In 2023, she joined BUSA as Wellness Director and helped revive Bond Aid’s international placement program after a six-year hiatus. In partnership with Nepali NGO PSD Nepal, Charlotte led months of planning before taking 16 Bond students to rural Gorkha in 2024.
Planning began almost a year in advance. The relationship with PSD Nepal pre-dated COVID, but had been dormant since 2018. Rebuilding it required care.
“It was really important to me that we weren’t just stepping in thinking we knew what was needed,” she says.
“The NGO had been working in the community for years. They’d been waiting for a university partner post-COVID. It was about rebuilding that relationship properly.”
Students undertook language and cultural training in Kathmandu before travelling deeper into the hills of Gorkha for placement. The experience was immersive with long days, steep terrain, and unfamiliar rhythms of life.
She was going to work in the not-for-profit sector.
As a Vice Chancellor Elite Scholar, she stepped onto campus with a strong sense of responsibility to give back.
“I initially chose to study business because I wanted to work in the not-for-profit sector,” she says.
“I’ve always been really drawn to NGOs, particularly around women’s rights and development.”
That ambition quickly turned into action.
In 2023, she joined BUSA as Wellness Director and helped revive Bond Aid’s international placement program after a six-year hiatus. In partnership with Nepali NGO PSD Nepal, Charlotte led months of planning before taking 16 Bond students to rural Gorkha in 2024.
Planning began almost a year in advance. The relationship with PSD Nepal pre-dated COVID, but had been dormant since 2018. Rebuilding it required care.
“It was really important to me that we weren’t just stepping in thinking we knew what was needed,” she says.
“The NGO had been working in the community for years. They’d been waiting for a university partner post-COVID. It was about rebuilding that relationship properly.”
Students undertook language and cultural training in Kathmandu before travelling deeper into the hills of Gorkha for placement. The experience was immersive with long days, steep terrain and unfamiliar rhythms of life.
For Drynan, standing in the Himalayas with a group of Bond students, it crystallised something. Development is not about grand gestures. It is about listening first.
“It truly made it possible working with the NGO,” she says.
“I was very conscious we weren’t there to ‘save’ anyone. We were there to support what was already happening.”
Back home, another commitment remained constant.
After volunteering at Sony Camp since high school, she became a convener of Bond’s annual Bond Children’s Holiday Camp in 2024 and 2025, delivered in partnership with Sony Foundation Australia.
Held just days before Christmas, the camp provides respite for children with disability and their families across the Gold Coast and regional Queensland. As Buddies and Runners Convener, Drynan coordinated up to 80 student volunteers - selecting, training and managing the team responsible for ensuring each child experienced “the best three days imaginable”.
“To see everyone step up that close to Christmas was amazing,” she says. “But what really stays with you is watching families connect. A lot of them don’t have strong networks of people going through similar experiences. By the end of camp, those connections are real and lasting.”
Packing up on Christmas Eve, exhausted and elated, she realised the throughline between Nepal and Sony Camp was community, whether in the Himalayas or on the Gold Coast.
Yet somewhere between those two worlds, her ambitions broadened.
International Relations had opened new intellectual doors. Study tours to Japan for Model United Nations immersed her in diplomacy and negotiation. In Fiji, she joined discussions with Fiji Rugby focused on women’s empowerment through sport. In India, she studied marketing and global business at OP Jindal University.
Each experience layered something new.
“Those experiences were made possible through support from Bond University's Student Opportunity Fund, one of the three initiates donors from the University’s annual Giving Day can channel their contribution towards.
Without them, these opportunities would have remained beyond reach.
"The Student Opportunity Fund definitely opened up doors for me and a lot of other students," she says.
"Thanks to the generous support of so many people, I was able to take part in those incredible opportunities. They really shaped my experience at Bond, but they also gave me clarity about the career I wanted to pursue."
It was in Fiji where the idea that sport could operate as a diplomatic bridge connecting communities, elevating women's participation and shaping national identity began to take hold.
And for someone who had grown up on a cattle property, who had dabbled in eventing, dressage, show horse and showjumping, that intersection felt personal.
“In Fiji, we were looking at sport development for women’s empowerment,” she says.
“That’s what really sparked my interest in sport diplomacy, how sport can be used as a tool for development and international engagement.”
She jokes she was known as “the horse girl of Bond”, a nickname handed to her after she sat for her Vice Chancellor Elite Scholar interviews via zoom from her horse float at Nationals. Competition then took a back seat during her degree, but the sport never did.
That intersection became tangible when she secured an internship with Equestrian Queensland.
Working alongside CEO Briston Toft and Operations Manager Samantha Duffy, Drynan contributed to projects building towards Brisbane 2032 - exploring logistics, legacy planning and the broader diplomatic opportunity of hosting the world in regional Queensland.
Toowoomba’s confirmation as the Olympic equestrian host venue made the work intensely personal.
“To have the Olympics potentially in your backyard, that’s huge,” she says.
“There’s such a big opportunity there, not just in sport but in how we position ourselves internationally.”
She examined how Australia could strengthen its sport diplomacy narrative through equestrian, a sport steeped in heritage, but increasingly conscious of welfare standards, sustainability and social licence.
Another focus was pathways for off-the-track thoroughbreds transitioning into new equestrian disciplines. Her own horse Ernest Desire (Ernie), is an off-the-track thoroughbred turned showjumper, a living example of the potential within those programs.
“Queensland does it really well,” she says. “But there’s an opportunity to streamline information and support nationally so it’s more accessible.”
Communications became her lever.
She launched Beyond the Bridle, a quarterly, member-driven publication celebrating Queensland’s equestrian community from elite riders to everyday athletes balancing careers, families and early mornings in the stable.
Her first edition featured fellow Bondy Kate Kyros, then the number one ranked Under-21 dressage rider in the world. But the publication was as much about grassroots riders as headline names.
“Equestrian is difficult to maintain if you’re not aiming to be a professional,” she says. “You’re juggling work, life, family and then horses on top of that. But we all do it because we love the horses. That partnership is what keeps people in the sport.”
She also supported communications for the Queensland Show Jumping Club State Titles, working alongside photographers and club leadership to elevate storytelling at the grassroots level.
Badminton became the culmination of everything that had come before. The international perspective she gained through Bond, the communications experience she built with Equestrian Queensland and the confidence developed through overseas study all converged at one of the world's greatest sporting events.
Europe remains the epicentre of the equestrian industry and at Badminton, Drynan found herself immersed in an event unlike anything she had previously experienced.
"It was amazing. Next level,” she says.
"I was surrounded by people at the very top of their field, not only the riders but the crew who run the event, the course designers and the media team."
The scale of the event left a lasting impression.
"They attracted an incredible amount of coverage for the event and the support from the public was astounding," she says.
"On the Saturday cross-country day, there were 110,000 people through the gates.
"And a lot of those weren't horse people. They were drawn in by the hype the team created around the event."
She also returned with a notebook full of ideas.
"It was a really good point of reference for things to bring back to Australia to help progress the marketing around our equestrian sport and events because they do it really well."
More importantly, the experience confirmed the direction she wants her career to take.
"The whole experience was mind blowing and, for me, it really affirmed the career path I want to pursue.
"I'm really interested in international equestrian events now and would love to gain more experience abroad before one day returning and helping our industry evolve its media and marketing strategies in the lead-up to Brisbane 2032."
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