Asia Briefing LIVE 2022

Chris joined La Trobe Financial in 2006 and, throughout his career with the business, has served in a variety of senior executive roles, including as Chief Investment Officer, Senior Legal Counsel and, prior to his current appointment, Deputy CEO.

Prior to joining La Trobe Financial, Chris worked at Minter Ellison Lawyers.

Chris is Chair of La Trobe Financial’s Executive Committee.

He was responsible for the strategic development of key industry sectors, including manufacturing, life sciences, digital tech, professional services and international education and the delivery of telecommunications and employment programs.

He has also held executive positions in the then Department of Environment and Primary Industries. In the mid-2000s, Tim established and managed the Victorian Government Business Office in New York.

Tim has Bachelor and Masters degrees in Agriculture Science from The University of Melbourne. He grew up in rural Victoria.

Prior to that appointment, Elisabeth was Assistant Secretary, Trade and Investment Law Branch, Office of Trade Negotiations in DFAT (September 2019-January 2020), and Minister-Counsellor (Trade) at the Australian Embassy in Washington DC (July 2016-July 2019). In that position, Ms Bowes oversaw bilateral trade relations between the US and Australia, as well as broader trade policy issues, climate change and energy issues, infrastructure and transportation. Prior to arriving in Washington, Elisabeth Bowes was Head of the Tobacco Plain Packaging Taskforce in the Office of Trade Negotiations in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Canberra, from 2012-2016, where she led Australia’s defence of its world first tobacco plain packaging measure in dispute settlement proceedings in the World Trade Organisation.

Elisabeth Bowes was also previously posted as Counsellor to Australia’s Permanent Mission to the WTO in Geneva, from 2009 - 2012. In this position she was responsible for WTO dispute settlement and trade and environment negotiations. Prior to joining Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 2006 as a legal specialist, Elisabeth Bowes was a legal officer at the United Nations Compensation Commission in Geneva and a legal officer at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg.

[Elisabeth Bowes holds Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws degrees from the University of Queensland, Australia, and Master of Philosophy in International Relations

She was the inaugural CEO of the National Foundation for Australia China Relations in 2020. She served as Australia’s Consul General to Hong Kong and Macau from 2017 to 2020, and on diplomatic missions in Singapore and Thailand. She also served as senior international adviser to Australian foreign and defense ministers.

Michaela has held senior trade and economic roles including leading Australia’s global investment promotion activities, and leading trade and investment operations for established markets (Americas, Europe, Japan, Korea, NZ and the Pacific) at the trade and investment commission (Austrade). She previously led Australia's development assistance program for Afghanistan and Pakistan, was a trade negotiator to the WTO and for Australia’s free trade agreements with the US and Singapore.

She is one of Australia’s members of the APEC Business Advisory Council, on the Board of the Australia Japan Business Co-operation Committee and of the Asia Society (Australia Chapter). She is an Advisory Board member for the Asian Development Bank. She is an Ambassador for the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation. She has previously served on boards for professional services, education, veterans volunteer and disaster response organizations.

She is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and has a Bachelor of Economics and Masters in Foreign Affairs and Trade from Monash University.

During her career, Katrina has served in a variety of international, national security and legal roles. In Australia, Katrina has served as Deputy Secretary, Southeast Asia and Global Partners Group (2022) in the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade (DFAT), where her responsibilities included oversight of 67 overseas posts. She has served as Head of the AUKUS Taskforce in DFAT (2021-22), and Chief Legal Officer for DFAT (2013-17).
Overseas she has served as Deputy Head of Mission, Washington DC (2017-21), where she led bilateral engagement with the United States on foreign and national security policy. She has also served as Ambassador to Mexico (2008-12) and in Papua New Guinea (2002-2005).
Katrina is an experienced advocate and negotiator and has led Australian delegations overseas on a wide range of international policy and legal issues including: chemical and biological weapons; Antarctica; Law of the Sea; and International Humanitarian Law. She has represented Australia at the United Nations in Geneva and New York. In 2017 she negotiated the maritime boundary with Timor-Leste.
Katrina is a strong proponent of a diverse workforce and was the architect and driver of the award winning initiative on Women in Leadership at DFAT.

In these roles, she focuses on leading initiatives that address challenges related to trade, investment, and innovation, as well as women’s empowerment in Asia. She joined ASPI following an illustrious career of nearly three decades as a diplomat and negotiator in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), where she also served as Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative. 

Greg was the deputy editor, opinion editor, national affairs editor and Asia Pacific editor of The Australian Financial Review.

Initially an academic with a PhD in Chinese politics from Stanford University, his career has spanned government service, think tanks, the private sector, and three regions of Asia. 

During 2014, he led the team that completed negotiation of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement. 

Mr Fletcher has served in the Australian Embassy to China on three previous occasions:  as Third Secretary (1986-88), Counsellor (1997-2000) and Deputy Head of Mission (2004-08). 

He was also Deputy Head of Mission in the Australian Embassy in Washington (2011-13) and Deputy Consul-General in the Australian Consulate-General in Noumea (1992-94)

Mr Fletcher has a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) from the University of Sydney.  He joined the then Department of Foreign Affairs in 1983. He is married with three children.

Dr. Fung studies how rising powers address the norms and provisions for global governance and international security, with a primary focus on China.  She is author of China and Intervention at the UN Security Council: Reconciling Status (Oxford University Press, 2019).

He has worked for the Aboriginal Co-op in Healesville as well as for Wurundjeri Council. In recent years Tony has developed his passion for Cultural Heritage Management within the Council.

Tony commenced delivering Welcomes four years ago when his mother, Aunty Doreen Garvey-Wandin (Senior Wurundjeri Elder), gave her blessing for Tony to take on this cultural duty.

Tony has a particularly deep connection with Coranderrk – a former thriving Aboriginal

Station in Healesville. Tony takes great pride in being a Wurundjeri descendant and with his strong past and contemporary connection with Coranderrk.

During his 37 years in the Ministry, he served in a variety of appointments at home and abroad, including as Ambassador to the Russian Federation, Permanent Representative to the UN in New York, and as the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry. 

From 2018 to 2019, Mr Maude was Deputy Secretary, Indo-Pacific Group, in the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Australia’s senior official to the East Asia Summit.

In 2017, Mr Maude was head of the whole-of-government taskforce which supported the preparation of the Australian Government’s 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper.

Mr Maude was Director-General of the Office of National Assessments from May 2013 until November 2016.  Before taking up this position, Mr Maude was the senior adviser on foreign policy and national security issues to Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

He has served overseas in Malaysia, where he was Deputy High Commissioner, Singapore and as the Liaison Officer for the Office of National Assessments in the Australian Embassy in Washington DC.

Mr Maude is a member of the Futures Council of the National Security College at the Australian National University.

His most recent book, Xi Jinping: The Backlash, was published by Penguin Australia as a Lowy Institute Paper in August 2019. His book on Sino-Japanese relations, Asia’s Reckoning: China, Japan and the Fate of U.S. Power in the Pacific Century (Penguin Books, 2017), was called “shrewd and knowing” by the Wall Street Journal and the “best book of the year” by the Literary Review in the United Kingdom. In late 2018, it won the Prime Minister of Australia’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction. His book, The Party (Penguin Books, 2010), on the inner-workings of the Chinese Communist Party, was translated into seven languages and chosen by the Asia Society and Mainichi Shimbun in Japan as their book of the year.

Richard is a Senior Associate (Non-resident) at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in the United States. He was also a visiting scholar at the Wilson Center and George Washington University in Washington DC from 2014-2016.

He also has a background across economics, public policy and politics through his roles in the Australian Treasury, the Australian Banking Association, and as an economic advisor in the Office of the Prime Minister.  He is based in Sydney. 

He is a Visiting Research Professor at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), National University of Singapore, and was previously the Director of ISAS. Mohan was the founding director of Carnegie India in Delhi, the sixth international center of Carnegie Endowment for Peace. 

Her research interests include issues of regional security in the Indo-Pacific, ASEAN, maritime security, Indonesia’s foreign policy, and development cooperation. In 2017, she joined the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) Singapore as a Senior Fellow at the Maritime Security Programme for one year. She was the Chief Editor of The Indonesian Quarterly, a quarterly academic journal published by CSIS, from 2013 to 2016; Doctoral Fellow at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy in Hamburg, Germany, from 2009 to 2012; and has received various scholarships and research grants, among others from the German Academic Exchange Service, the Managing Global Governance Network, USAID, JICA, and Korea Foundation. She served in the panel of jury for the 2022 and 2021 Adam Malik Award.

She earned a masters degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 2003 and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Hamburg in 2013.

Dr. Pramono completed his professional diplomatic training in the diplomatic schools of Indonesian Foreign Ministry, Jakarta, and the Clingendael Institute of International Relations, The Netherlands. As a career diplomat, he served in various Indonesian diplomatic missions abroad, including The Indonesian Embassies in The Netherlands and Germany. As a scholar, Dr. Pramono is a non-tenured lecture in various universities, namely Airlangga University, Cendrawasih University, as well as a fellow at the The Indonesian Institute of Science (LIPI) and Charles Darwin University, Australia.

Before joining the Lowy Institute, Susannah was a Research Fellow in the Foreign Policy and Defence Program at the United States Studies Centre. Her commentary and analysis has featured in Australian and international outlets, including the New York Times, Foreign Policy, Australian Financial Review and The Interpreter. Before leaving government, she worked in various Southeast Asia-focused positions in the Australian government, including as a Senior Analyst in the Southeast Asia Branch at the Office of National Intelligence, in the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit Taskforce in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and as a diplomat in the Australian Embassy in Bangkok. Susannah holds first class honours degrees in law and political science from the Australian National University.

Stroud-Watts has conducted in-depth interviews with many leading business, financial and corporate newsmakers including Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan, Nobel Laureate for Economics Angus Deaton, World Bank Managing Director Bertrand Badre and the founders of China’s largest conglomerate, Fosun. She has also reported live from major events, most recently China’s 19th Party Congress in Beijing.

Stroud-Watts joined Bloomberg in 2015 as an anchor for Bloomberg Television in Hong Kong. Prior to joining Bloomberg, she was the Senior Business Anchor for Channel NewsAsia in Singapore. She began her career as a lawyer in Melbourne before making the switch to journalism as a Business Anchor with CCTV News in Beijing, and subsequently to Fox Business Network as its Asia Markets Reporter.

Fluent in Mandarin and English, Stroud-Watts graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, History and Political Science, and a Bachelor of Law degree.

As Prime Minister, Rudd led Australia's response during the Global Financial Crisis. Australia's fiscal response to the crisis was reviewed by the IMF as the most effective stimulus strategy of all member states. Australia was the only major advanced economy not to go into recession. Rudd is also internationally recognized as one of the founders of the G20, which drove the global response to the crisis and in 2009 helped prevent the crisis from spiraling into a second global depression.

As Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Rudd was active in global and regional foreign policy leadership. He was a driving force in expanding the East Asia Summit (EAS) to include both the U.S. and Russia in 2010. He also initiated the concept of transforming the EAS into a wider Asia-Pacific community to help manage deep-rooted tensions in Asia by building over time the institutions and culture of common security in Asia. On climate change, Rudd ratified the Kyoto Protocol in 2007 and legislated in 2008 for a mandatory 20 percent renewable energy target for Australia. Rudd launched Australia's challenge in the International Court of Justice with the objective of stopping Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean. Rudd drove Australia's successful bid for its current non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council and oversaw the near-doubling of Australia's foreign aid budget.

Rudd is Chair of the Board of the International Peace Institute. He is a member of the IMF Managing Director’s External Advisory Group and the Global Leadership Council for Sanitation and Water for All. He is a Senior Fellow at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, a Distinguished Fellow at Chatham House in London, a Distinguished Statesman with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC, and a Distinguished Fellow at the Paulson Institute in Chicago. Rudd is a member of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization’s Group of Eminent Persons. He serves on the International Advisory Board of the Schwarzman Scholars program at Tsinghua University. Rudd is proficient in Mandarin Chinese. He remains actively engaged in indigenous reconciliation.

He has written for publications including the Canberra Times and the South China Morning Post, and was part of CNN’s award-winning coverage of the 2019 Hong Kong protests and the Xinjiang human rights crisis, before joining Bloomberg in 2022.