Mr Alvarado Martinez has extensive experience from a range of different European NGOs and youth forums. Most recently, he was appointed as Program Manager at 100 Resilient Cities, pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation: a seminal project striving to improve urban adaptation to the challenges and stress factors of the modern era. Melbourne and Sydney are among the 100 member cities of the initiative.
Mr Costello is a leading voice on social justice and leadership and ethics. He has been fundamental in placing global poverty issues on the national agenda, as well as participating in public debates on gambling, urban poverty, homelessness and reconciliation in both home and abroad, publicly commenting on topical societal phenomena such as the European migration crisis.
Mr Greiner was Premier and Treasurer of New South Wales from 1988-92. He was awarded a Companion of the Order of Australia for public sector reform and management and services to the community. Mr Greiner holds a number of positions, including as a Member of the Board of Governors of the Committee for Economic Development of Australia, in addition to enjoying well established business connections to Europe.
Mr Jennings has worked at senior levels in the Australian Public Service on national defence and security and taught politics and international relations at the University of New South Wales and the Australian Defence Force Academy. His areas of expertise include strategic policy, crisis management, international security and international policy. More recently, Mr Jennings has reflected upon the impacts on Australia of Brexit and European terrorist attacks. He has been awarded a Public Service Medal in 2013 for his contribution to Australian overseas operations and the French decoration of Knight in 2016.
Mr Kerneis is a legal expert with an academic background and an impressive career in European and international trade law. Until his appointment as Managing Director of the ESF he served at the European Banking Federation, participating as advisor in GATS and WTO negotiations on financial services throughout the 1990s. He is member of many European Commission’s Advisory Groups, including for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the EU and the US. He is a regular speaker on trade in services and investment conferences and author of articles on trade in services related issues in various publications. In his current position at the European Services Forum Mr Kerneis strongly advocates a Free Trade Agreement between the EU and Australia.
The former Director-General of the World Trade Organization (2005-2013), Mr Lamy is a notable figure and opinion leader in European affairs, in particular trade and finance. He holds a number of public offices both in Europe and elsewhere, from Transparency International France to the Center on European Regulation to the Global Agenda Council on Global Governance at the World Economic Forum. An expert in European integration, a 2014 Prospect poll casted Mr Lamy among the top 50 of the world’s leading thinkers.
A diplomat and senior figure within the European Commission and European External Action Service, Mr Leffler has built an impressive and versatile career in regional and international affairs. He joined the Swedish Foreign Service in 1980, and was posted in Egypt and France before basing himself permanently in Brussels in 1991. Before his current post as Deputy Secretary General, Mr Leffler served as Managing Director for the Americas. He has studied in Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva and in London School of Economics, and speaks five languages.
An Oxford Graduate, the French-Australian Mr McInnes possesses extensive global experience in and knowledge of economic diplomacy. Prior to his current post he worked as Chief Financial Officer in the defence and aerospace sector. Mr McInnes currently sits on 3 major European company boards in addition to his main position as Chairman of the Board at Safran. In 2015, Ross McInnes was appointed special representative of the French Minister of Foreign Affairs for economic relations with Australia.
Dr Niblett has served as Director of Chatham House since 2007. Before that he was the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at CSIS in Washington. Dr Niblett is well-known as the author of and contributor to a number of publications, particularly on transatlantic relations between the UK and the US. An accomplished public speaker, Mr Niblett recently delivered a speech on the implications of Brexit at the Australian Institute of International Affairs in Canberra.
HE Dr Pulch is a distinguished diplomat, with a sound understanding of the EU relations with countries in the far East/Australasia region. Dr Pulch’s academic background is in international law and political sciences. He has held his current office since September 2017.
Catherine Raper is First Assistant Secretary, Europe and Latin America Division. She is a senior career officer in Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade with over 20 years’ experience.
Ms Raper served as Australian Representative (Head of Post) in Taipei, Taiwan from 2014-2017. Her overseas experience also includes Minister-Counsellor (Trade) in the Australian Embassy in Washington DC (2010-2012), Counsellor to Australia’s Permanent Mission to the WTO in Geneva (2003-2006) (working principally on WTO dispute settlement) and Third Secretary in the Australian Embassy in The Hague (1995-1998).
In Canberra, Ms Raper’s previous positions have included Assistant Secretary, Trade Commitments Branch and Deputy Chief Negotiator for Australia at the commencement of the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations; Director, Free Trade Agreements Section and Legal Counsel on the Australia-Chile FTA negotiations; and Director, Canada, Latin America and Caribbean Section.
An awarded reporter and investigative journalist, Ms Tingle has written extensively on markets, economics and politics over 30 years. As a recognition of this commitment and of her outstanding reporting skills, she has won two Walkley awards and the Paul Lyneham award for Excellence in Press Gallery Journalism. Before taking her current position at the ABC, Ms Tingle served as Political Editor for the Australian Financial Review, Political Correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Australian, as well as National Affairs and Economics Correspondent at the latter.
Mr van Rompuy was elected the first full-time President of the European Council in 2009, holding the office up until 2014. Prior to this he served as Prime Minister of Belgium and hold several other government positions in his home country from Minister of Budget to Secretary of State for Finance and Small Businesses. An economist by background, Mr Van Rompuy has been involved in politics since 1973. Today he serves as professor at several universities, including Sciences Po in Paris. Recently in 2014 Mr Van Rompuy led the EU Delegation at the G20 Summit in Brisbane. .
Mr Varghese took up his position as the fourteenth Chancellor at The University of Queensland on 11 July 2016.
Prior to this appointment Mr Varghese was Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade from December 2012 to July 2016. His diplomatic appointments include High Commissioner to India (2009-12), High Commissioner to Malaysia (2000-02) and postings to Tokyo, Washington and Vienna. Mr Varghese was appointed an Officer in the Order of Australia (AO) in 2010 for distinguished service to public administration, particularly in leading reform in the Australian intelligence community and as an adviser in the areas of foreign policy and international security.
Ms Westacott has enjoyed a prolific career in both the public and private sectors. Her policy experience extends to economics and competitiveness, infrastructure and sustainable growth, education, healthcare, global engagement and innovation. Of late she has expressed her concerns over the implications of the UK’s leave-vote for global financial uncertainty and Australia’s credit rating.
Ms Broadbent commenced as Chancellor of the University of Wollongong on 1 October 2009. She has served on the boards of a number of Australian and publically listed companies, government corporations and arts organisations. Ms Broadbent is a former Member of the Board of the Reserve Bank of Australia and currently Chair of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, a Director of Woolworths Limited and Chair of the Board of Swiss Re Life & Health Australia Ltd. She was made an Officer in the Order of Australia in 2003 for service to economic and financial development in Australia.
Prior to her current post, Ms Hand served as Australia’s representative overseas, holding positions such as Australian High Commissioner to Canada, Minister and Deputy Head of Mission in Indonesia and Ambassador to Cambodia. She is a senior career officer with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and has been acknowledged for her efforts in Indonesia with a Public Service Medal.
Former Italian Prime Minister and current Dean of the Paris School of International Affairs at Sciences Po in Paris, Mr Enrico Letta has featured prominently both in Italy’s domestic affairs and in European politics. During his tenure in the Italian government, he served as Minister for EU Affairs and Minister for Industry, Commerce and Crafts and Foreign Trade, in addition to being a Member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2006. Mr Letta has a PhD in European Union Law and he has published extensively on EU affairs, in particular on EU enlargement, indicating his firm commitment to and interest in the continent’s matters. He has been awarded a Distinguished Fellowship by the University of Technology Sydney (UTS).
Emeritus Professor Triggs is a distinguished academic and international commercial lawyer. She has advised governments and international organisations on international human rights law, commented on current phenomena such as the European migration crisis from a legal expert’s perspective and contributed to the implementation of human rights treaties in Australian law. She is also the co-editor of Trade and Cooperation with the European Union in the New Millennium (2002).