About Us

Peter is Professor, and Executive Director of the Institute for International Trade in the School of Economics and Public Policy, The University of Adelaide, Australia. He holds a Jean Monnet Chair in Trade and Environment and Directs the Jean Monnet Centre on Trade and Environment. He is a board member of the Australian Services Roundtable; and member of the South Australia Committee of the Australia-India Chamber of Commerce. He is also a Director of the Board of Trustees of the International Chamber of Commerce’s Research Foundation; non-resident senior fellow of the Brussels-based European Centre for International Political Economy; and Associated Researcher at the German Institute of Development and Sustainability.

READ FULL BIO

Associate Professor Shandre Thangavelu is an active researcher on human capital development, technology transfer, foreign direct investment, trade, government infrastructure investment, productivity and economic growth. He has written extensively in technology transfer and economic growth and has published his research in major international journals. His recent publications are in Journal of Economic Development, Empirical Economics, Applied Economics, World Economy, and Journal of Economic Studies. Recently, he was attached as the Head of the Economics Unit, Ministry of Manpower, under the Economist Service to Ministry of Trade and Industry and Ministry of Manpower. He has also worked on several international projects commissioned by UNDP, World Bank, ASEAN Secretariat, APEC, and Asian Productivity Organization (APO).

Associate Professor Shandre Thangavelu is currently the Regional Director (Southeast Asia) at Centre for International Economic Studies, Institute of International Trade. He is also the Managing Editor for Asian Economic Journal (AEJ). He is also a Research Fellow at Leverhulme Centre for Research on Globalisation and Economic Policy (GEP) and Research Associate at Institute of Policy Studies at LKY School of Public Policy at Singapore.

Thangavelu is also appointed by the Singapore Government to the Governing Board for the Work, Safety, Health Institute (WSHI) of Singapore. He is also the member of the Competition Commission Appeal Board at Singapore.

READ FULL BIO

Dr Nathan Gray has a PhD in Asian Business and is a strategic international management and policy adviser to governments, NGO’s, international organizations, and corporations in the Asia Pacific. He has a detailed and unique knowledge of emerging corporate and government opportunities in Asia, gained through more than 20 years of experience operating in Asia-Pacific markets.
Nathan has undertaken international trade strategy projects for a range of corporate and government clients in multiple industries; from the food, agriculture, horticulture and wine, health and leisure through to defence, manufacturing, engineering and education. Dr Gray has worked throughout Asia including; China, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, India, Singapore, Timor Leste, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Egypt, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

Dr. Vutha Hing holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Adelaide, Australia, a Master’s in International Economics from Waseda University, Japan, and a Master’s in International Trade Law and Policy (LL.M) from the University of Barcelona, Spain. With nearly 20 years of experience, Dr. Hing has been actively engaged in economic research and policy debates, particularly in Cambodia and the East Asian region. From 2004 to 2018, he served as a research fellow at the Cambodia Development Resource Institute (CDRI), focusing on trade, economic integration, and firm performance analysis. His core competencies lie in trade policy analysis using quantitative methods. Additionally, Dr. Hing is an appointed external trade expert to the Royal Government of Cambodia’s Trade Policy Advisory Board.

Dr. Hing has a strong interest in advancing his knowledge and research in trade economics, industrial policy, global value chain, and firm strategy analysis, especially within the context of the evolving global economic and trade landscape.

Freddie Namo is an international trade lawyer and is currently undertaking his doctoral degree in international Investment law at  the University of Adelaide Law School. He has extensive experience working in international development projects in the South Pacific region.

He joined the Institute for International Trade as a Research and Teaching Assistant and has continued to provide research and teaching support for various projects and courses. His research interests are in international trade law, international investment law, heterodox economics, critical law and political economy, and their interface with cross-cutting issues especially in small island states. He obtained his Masters and Bachelor of Law degree from National Taiwan University in Taiwan.

Prior to pursuing his PhD studies he was working for Nathan Associates as a national consultant in implementing  trade and investment programme under the USAID SCALE Project in Solomon Islands, in 2021 he participated as a national expert in the evaluation of WTO Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) Projects with Saana Consulting Limited, he was the National Export Market System Facilitator for Solomon Islands under the PHAMA Plus Program in 2019, International trade consultant for the Commonwealth technical assistance to Solomon Islands in 2017 and Legal Officer for the Office of the Chief Trade Advisor during the PACER Plus negotiations in 2015.

Sarah is Projects Coordinator for the Institute for International Trade (IIT). Bringing over 30 years experience of business administration to the team, having worked with various stakeholders, partners, and vendors across different sectors and industries. 

Sarah is responsible for ensuring in the support the successful delivery of research project objectives and coordinating project activity, contract administration. Tracking project and workflow statuses Sarah assists with the development, coordination and implementation of operational plans for these projects, ensuring all aspects are successfully delivered. Managing all project progress, providing financial & budgetary reports. Managing and delivering on competing priorities and project timelines, working collaboratively with researchers, academics, University professional staff and key stakeholders. 

Sarah also plays a key role in IIT's marketing and communication activities, along with management of the IIT website. 

Our multidisciplinary team has the requisite skills and cumulative experience to successfully support the delivery of an ambitious range of projects. Our team has demonstrated experience in:

• capacity building through human capital development, development of robust trade architecture and regulatory institutions;
• analysis of services trade and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI);
• development of strategic trade policy;
• evaluation of the effectiveness of global and preferential trade agreements with a view of global supply and value chains;
• impact analyses of WTO accession, services trade and FDI policy, domestic industry capacity, and regional integration through multilateral trade agreements;
• trade and development issues, including identification of binding constraints;
• comparative regional trade policy;
• analysis of Services Trade Restrictiveness Indicators (OECD STRI) and trade statistics, including Trade in Value Added Data;
• simulation and modelling of open economies (GTAP, Gravity Modeling, input/output analysis);
• survey methodologies and conduct of surveys in developing economies;
• facilitation of a wide variety of high-level conferences, workshops and seminars for the purpose of disseminating research outcomes and advocating for trade.

Born in Adelaide, Amanda Vanstone studied arts and law at the University of Adelaide and before entering politics worked in the legal area, retailing and small business.

Amanda entered the Australian Parliament in 1984 and was a Liberal senator for South Australia from 1984 to 2007. She was the only female member of the Howard cabinet following the 1996 election that brought the Coalition to power.

She held several ministerial portfolios in the Howard government including minister for employment, education, training and youth affairs, minister for justice and customs, minister for family and community services, minister assisting the prime minister for the status of women, minister for immigration and multicultural and Indigenous affairs, and minister assisting the prime minister for reconciliation.

After her resignation from the Senate in 2007, Amanda served as the Australian ambassador to Italy until July 2010. Amanda was a commissioner on the Federal Commission of Audit in 2013-March 2014. She also serves on the boards, councils and committees for various organisations, including Drinkwise Australia, the Adelaide Festival of Arts, Woomera Protected Area Advisory Committee, Lockheed Martin Australia, the University of Adelaide and Vision 2020.

Kym Anderson is George Gollin Professor Emeritus in the School of Economics at the University of Adelaide (where he has been affiliated since 1984) and an Honorary Professor at the Australian National University’s Crawford School of Public Policy (where he was a Research Fellow 1977-83 and a part-time Professor of Economics 2012-18). In two periods of extended leave he served as deputy head of economic research at the GATT (now World Trade Organization) Secretariat in Geneva (1990-92) and as Lead Economist (Trade Policy) at the World Bank in Washington DC (2004-07).

He became the first economist to serve on a series of dispute settlement panels at the World Trade Organization (1996-2008). During 2000-05 he was a Non-Executive Director on the Board of Australia’s Grape and Wine Research and Development Corporation, and during 2010-17 he served on the Board of Trustees of the International Food Policy Research Institute (Washington DC), chairing it from 2015. He has also served the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research on its Commission for International Agricultural Research, 2011-14 and as President of its international Policy Advisory Council since 2014 currently serves on the Governing Council of the International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology based in Nairobi and, since 2018, on the Advisory Board of Peking University’s Institute of New Rural Development. Since doctoral studies at the University of Chicago and Stanford University, he has published more than 400 articles and 40 books.

He is a Research Fellow at Europe’s London-based Centre for Economic Policy Research, an Honorary Life Member of the International Association of Agricultural Economists, a Fellow of the (American) Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, a Distinguished Fellow of the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, a Fellow of the American Association of Wine Economists, a Distinguished Fellow of the Economic Society of Australia, and a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. He is a recipient of an Honorary Doctor of Economics degree from the University of Adelaide, and is a Distinuished Alumnus of the University of New England. In 2015 he became a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC).
 

Maurice was Managing Director then Chief Executive Officer of the San Remo Group of Companies from 1985 to 2015 and is now the Joint, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, of this still family owned company.

• Inaugural Board Member, South Australian Economic Development Board, 2002-2006
• Member, South Australian Export Council, 2003-2005
• Member, Premier’s Food Council, 1998-2010
• Member, Premier’s South Australian Development Council, 1994-1995
• Founding Chairman, South Australian Food and Beverage Exporters Association Inc (now Food South Australia), 1999-2005
• Director Prime Minister’s Agri(culture) Chain Solutions, 1999-2003 
• (Part of the Prime Minister’s Supermarket to Asia Initiative)
• Member, Australian Wheat Board (now Cargill Australia), 1992-1995
• Member, Board of Governors, Institute for International Trade, University of Adelaide, since 2006
• Board Member, State Opera of South Australia, 1992-2001
• Board Member, State Opera Ring Corporation, 1995-1999
• Board Member, State Theatre Company of South Australia, 1982-1989Graduate of Melbourne University – Master of Business Administration, 1974
• Graduate of Flinders University – Bachelor of Arts,1971

Awards and recognition include:

• Awarded the Honour of the Officer of the Order of Australia (AO), January 2018
• Knighted by the Italian Government with the Honour of Cavaliere, December 2017
• Recipient, Distinguished Alumnus Award, Melbourne Business School, University of Melbourne 2015

Nola Watson is the Deputy President of ACCI, CEO of Business NSW and Chairman of International Chamber of Commerce, Australia
Previously, Nola was Executive General Manager of Insurance Australia Group with group wide, global responsibility for risk and governance.

From 2002–2011 she had various executive roles in IAG leading portfolios of Operational Risk, Strategic Partnerships, Government & International Relations, Corporate Affairs, Legal and Customer & Community. Prior to IAG, Nola spent many years in senior executive positions within New South Wales and Commonwealth governments. Amongst other roles, she was part of the executive leadership team for the Sydney 2000 Olympics, and also served in a diplomatic position in Washington DC.

Nola has a broad range of Board and Committee experience, including as Chairman of the NSW Business Chamber, Director of the IAG and NRMA Superannuation Board and Chair of its Audit and Risk Committee. She was also a Director of Australian Services Roundtable, Business for Millennium Development and the State Records Authority of NSW. She is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Nola holds degrees from Sydney University and Australian National University and has business qualifications from INSEAD France and Wharton Business School, USA. She was an Australian Telstra Business Woman of the Year and was awarded the Commonwealth Government Centenary Medal for services to business.

Tim Yeend was appointed Associate Secretary in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade with responsibility for trade and investment in November 2021. He has over 30 years experience at the highest levels of government and in the international system, providing strategic direction and vision on trade and related issues.

Before assuming his current role, Mr Yeend worked at the World Trade Organization as Principal Adviser and Chief of Staff to former Director-General Roberto Azevedo and current Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iwaela. He also led the World Trade Organization’s engagement with G20 Leaders as WTO Sherpa.

rior to this, Mr Yeend was the Australian Ambassador to the WTO and other international economic organisations in Geneva. He has also worked in a number of senior positions in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, including overseas assignments in Switzerland, Indonesia and South Africa. He worked as an adviser to former Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer and Trade Minister Mark Vaile. He has also worked in the former Departments of Primary Industries and Energy and Transport.

Mr Yeend holds a BA (Hons) from the Australian National University as well as postgraduate qualifications from the UK.

My main research interests are in public policy and political economy of East and Southeast Asia, where I focus on explaining political behaviours and outcomes across East and Southeast Asia. I am particularly interested in modeling and testing how key players, such as government and citizens, work strategically with one another to achieve large-scale policy success or political outcomes such as growth and development.

My work combines deep country knowledge of East and Southeast Asia with game-theory, experiments, statistics and mixed case-studies to develop and test predictions, in a field where work has traditionally been single country-study. This has led to visiting and distinguished positions across a number of universities, including Visiting Professor, Yonsei University (Korea), ANU-Indiana Pan Asia Institute Distinguished Scholar  , University of Indiana (Indiana, US), East Asia Instiute (Korea) Fellow  , Keeler IntraUniversity Professor, University of Kansas (Kansas, US), and American Young Scholars and Experts (Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs).

Outside of academia, I have worked with the World Bank as a Lead-consultant to develop a general theoretical framework for social protection in Asia and the Pacific; and also led capacity-building workshops with the Commonwealth Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Until April 2022, I was advisory board member of the National Security College , advisory board member of the Tax and Transfer Institute , advisory board member the Korea Institute, elected board member of the Canberra Convention Bureau,  and elected ACT councillor for the Institute of Public Administration Australia ,

I am currently co-editor at the European Journal of Development Research , co-editor of the Asia and the Pacific Policy Journal , editorial board member for Joural of East Asian Studies , Asian Survey , Korea Observer, and 21^stCentury Political Science Review, and advisory board member of the Indonesian Project .

Tim Harcourt is the new Industry Professor and Chief Economist at the Institute for Public Policy and Governance (IPPG) at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). Professor Harcourt specialises in Australia’s economic engagement with the Global Economy particularly Asia, Latin America and Emerging Markets and has worked in both public policy and research roles in International Trade, Labour Markets, Climate Innovation and the Economics of Sport.

He is passionate about making economics and international trade accessible to the whole community. He is well known for his TV show The Airport Economist about his travels to over 60 countries to see what makes their economies tick and the potential trade opportunities with Australia. The Airport Economist is also a podcast and a best-selling book with a just released sequel The Airport Economist Flies Again!  

He also hosts the new TV series on China and Australia After the Pandemic. Professor Harcourt joined UTS in April 2021 from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) where he was Professor of Practice in Economics at the UNSW Business School.  He was also previously the first Chief Economist of the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) and Research Officer/Advocate with the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), a role first held by Bob Hawke in the 1960s. He has been an Adviser to 2 State Premiers and 3 Federal Cabinet Ministers and an Expert Panel Member to the Fair Work Commission (FWC) on Minimum Wages and Superannuation. He has also been an International Economist with the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and has worked as an Economist in the private sector in USA, UK and Israel. You can find The Airport Economist TV series, podcast, books and blogs at www.theairporteconomist.com and www.footynomics.com.au

David is the Chief Executive of the Department for Trade and Investment (DTI). He drives business investment in the state and facilitates trade in goods and services both interstate and internationally including through 14 international trade and investment offices across the globe. David also develops strategy to ensure the management of the State’s Planning System to support our growing population to maintain our lifestyle.

David is commercial in his thinking and has a demonstrated substantial record of success in policy advice, financial management, and organisation and executive leadership. As a focused and dedicated leader he has developed and communicated strategy, built teams with a strong performance culture and developed strong relationships across government, industry and community sector organisations.

David was previously the Chief Executive of the Department of Treasury and Finance which included managing the state economy and budget through the global pandemic while continuing to invest in infrastructure and managing the state’s credit rating. He has also been responsible for diverse functions including Commonwealth-State relations, tax policy, industrial relations and gambling policy issues.

David completed a Bachelor of Economics (Hons) from the University of Adelaide and in 2022 was awarded a Public Sector Medal for his outstanding contributions to economic and financial policy in South Australia. He is also a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a National Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration Australia.

David also sits on a number of Boards to help shape the future of national policy and leadership including:

CEDA’s National Council on Economic Policy
Infrastructure SA
SA Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committee

David is a passionate South Australian driven by helping to grow the South Australian economy through leading and collaborating both within government and with the private sector.

Christophe has been working for the last 25 years on trade policy and sustainable development in the context of international negotiations. Since 2014, he serves as adviser to the group of least developed countries (LDCs) and that of the ACP countries (Africa, Caribbean, Pacific) in WTO negotiations. He has also worked in different capacities for various international organizations including the WTO, UNCTAD, ECLAC or the OECD.

He is currently an Associate with IISD’s Energy program, and an Associate Fellow at the Chatham House Hoffmann Centre for Sustainable Resource Economy and serves as a member of the Academic Advisory Council of the Trade Policy Training Centre in Africa (TRAPCA), Arusha, Tanzania.

Prior to that he worked for the ICTSD, an independent think tank, based in Geneva, Switzerland as head of programmes and as Senior Resident Research

Jim Redden has served on the Australian Trade Minister’s WTO Advisory Committee and has been part of the Australian Government’s official delegation to a number of WTO Ministerial meetings and Global Aid for Trade reviews.  He continues to advise the Australian Government on international trade and inclusive economic issues of concern to developing countries, in particular on Aid for Trade. In addition to jointly running a small consulting company and lecturing into Master Degree courses at the University of Adelaide in trade policy, global business and international aid and development, Jim Redden is the Executive Officer of the Australian Trade and Development Business Network, a private sector organisation which facilitates private-public partnerships for development and advocates for a stronger role for a responsible private sector in global poverty reduction activities.

Ken was Director of Trade and Agriculture at the OECD between 2008 and September 2020, having served as Deputy Director since 1999. Ken lead OECD efforts to develop and communicate evidence-based advice to governments with the aim of improving the domestic and international performance of trade, food, agriculture and fisheries policies.

Prior to joining the OECD Ken had extensive experience in the Government of Canada. As Director General, Economic and Policy Analysis (1995-99) he provided strategic policy advice on agriculture and trade policy issues and on government-wide policy and institutional reforms.

Ken is currently establishing a consultancy service, offering global insights on international trade and agriculture policies - with a particular emphasis on subsidy reform, value chains, and food systems.

Milton Churche left the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 2018 after working on trade policy since 1987. From 1987 to 1994 Milton worked on the Uruguay Round agriculture negotiations and Australia’s chairing of the Cairns Group. He then worked on a range of World Trade Organization (WTO) issues until 2001, including on several WTO disputes.

From 2002 he was involved in the negotiation of free trade agreements (FTAs): Milton led the negotiations on services and investment in Australia’s bilateral FTAs with Singapore and the United States; and he led the negotiations on all goods-related issues in the bilateral FTA with Malaysia and the regional ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand FTA (AANZFTA).

From 2012 Milton was Australia’s Deputy Lead Negotiator for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations initiated by ASEAN with its FTA partners.

Dr. Andreas Freytag is Professor of Economics at the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, where he chairs the Schumpeter-Centre, Director of Tutwa Europe, Visiting Professor in the Institute of International Trade at the University of Adelaide and Honorary Professor at the University of Stellenbosch.

He is also member of the CESifo Research Network, a STIAS Fellow, a Senior Fellow at Kings College’s DAFM, Senior Research Fellow at ECIPE, Brussels, and a Senior Research Associate at SAIIA, Johannesburg; he is associated to the G8 Research Group at the University of Toronto.

Freytag is on the Academic Board of the German-African Business Association (Afrika-Verein der deutschen Wirtschaft). Freytag has published a number of books and articles in first-class peer-reviewed journals on economic policy, international trade policy, development economics and international policy coordination. He contributes to blogs and has a weekly column on wiwo-online, a German magazine.

Professor Christopher Findlay was until October 2018 the Executive Dean of the Faculty of the Professions at the University of Adelaide. Earlier positions include Professor of Economics in the Asia Pacific School of Economics and Government at the Australian National University (ANU) (1999 - 2005) and Head of the School of Economics at the University of Adelaide (2005 – 2011). 

He has a PhD in Economics from the ANU and is also a graduate of the University of Adelaide. He is a Member of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and a Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AM).

Findlay’s research interests include Australia’s economic relationships with Asia, especially in the services sector. He is currently vice Chair of the Australian Pacific Economic Cooperation Committee

Dr. Richard Pomfret has been Professor of Economics at the University of Adelaide since 1992. Before coming to Adelaide, he was Professor of Economics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington DC, Bologna (Italy) and Nanjing (China). He previously worked at Concordia University in Montréal and the Institut für Weltwirtschaft at the University of Kiel in Germany. He has also held visiting positions at universities in Australia, Canada, China, France, Italy and the USA, and is an honorary Fellow of the Centre for Euro-Asian Studies at the University of Reading, UK, of Monash University European Centre, of the Centre for Social and Economic Research (CASE) in Warsaw, and of the research centre ROSES-CNRS at Université-Paris I.

Richard Pomfret has acted as adviser to the Australian government and to international organizations such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and United Nations Development Programme.  In 1993 he was seconded to the United Nations for a year, acting as adviser on macroeconomic policy to the Asian republics of the former Soviet Union.  He has also worked at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris on several occasions while on leave from Adelaide.

Richard Pomfret was Jean Monnet Chair on Economics of European Intergration from 2017 - 2020 

Jane Drake-Brockman is an expert on international trade and regional integration and widely recognized as Australia’s foremost industry expert on services competitiveness and trade in services. Jane joined IIT in 2015 as the Director of the EU Centre for Global Affairs. In 2019 Jane was appointed as  Network Director for the Jean Monnet Network: Trade & Investment in Services Associates (TIISA) at The Institute for International Trade. 

Jane is the Founder of the Australian Services Roundtable, the peak business body for the services industries and co-convenor of the Asia Pacific Services Coalition. She has served on the Board of the International Chamber of Commerce in Australia, on the Executive Committee of the Hong Kong Coalition of Services Industries and as convenor of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) Taskforce on Services. She was a central architect of the APEC Services Competitiveness Roadmap and is credited in the literature with the original business-driven idea behind the plurilateral TISA negotiations in Geneva.

Jane is a former senior Australian diplomat, serving as Chief Economist in DFAT, as Assistant Secretary, Services & Intellectual Property Branch and Minister/Charge d’Affaires at the Australian Delegation to the EU in Brussels.