AIIA Queensland Branch Council

President

The Honourable Paul Lucas MPIA, FAICD

Paul Lucas is a non-executive director and consultant. As a practising solicitor, he is also a qualified mediator and arbitrator. Now a consultant with National Law Firm, Holding Redlich, he was also the Deputy Premier for four years and a Minister in the Queensland State Government for eleven years. His Ministerial responsibilities included Infrastructure & Planning; Transport & Main Roads; Local Government; Energy; Health; and as Attorney-General. Given the extensiveness of these portfolios, he was involved in many large transport infrastructure projects across Queensland, as well as managing state relationships with federal and local governments.

Paul also lectures at a postgraduate level at UQ on infrastructure planning and various courses on governance. In addition to his consultancy work with Holding Redlich, he also consults to and advises Boards and CEO’s on dispute resolution and in the non-profit area on constitutional, rules and disciplinary matters. He has also been called on to work with organisations (including state & local government) seeking to navigate multi-stakeholder solutions and those facing internal and external conflict.

Paul holds a Bachelor of Economics, a Bachelor of Laws, a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Urban and Regional Planning. In addition, he is the State President of the Australian Institute of International Affairs Queensland.

To follow Paul on LinkedIn, click here.

Vice-President

Ms. Diana McCluskey

Diana McCluskey is the Manager for the Graduate Centre in International Affairs in the School of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Queensland. Established in 2016, the Graduate Centre houses innovative graduate programs in International Relations, Peace and Conflict Studies and in Governance and Public Policy. The Graduate Centre is also home to the School’s Higher Degree by Research (MPhil and PhD) and Honours programs as well as the Rotary Peace Centre, one of only seven such centres in the world.

With extensive personal experience living in Asia (Diana’s family connection to Hong Kong spans four generations) her interests and connections in international affairs in this region are strong. Diana is also currently Chair for the Australasian Study of Parliament Group (Qld). This non-partisan body encourages and stimulates research, writing and teaching about parliamentary institutions in Australia in order to generate a better understanding of their functions.

Diana’s current focus is on tertiary education in political science – specifically developing partnerships to assist students achieve their career goals, and global engagement to meet the same ends.

Secretary

Mr. David Costello

David Costello is a writer, and an activist involved in many organisations. He was a newspaper journalist for 35 years and worked as foreign editor of The Courier-Mail for 20 years. Since 2017, David has been secretary of the Brisbane South & Logan Local Action Group of the Australian Conservation Foundation. He is now an active member of the Queensland Community Alliance and is conducting research on the housing and jobs crisis in Logan City. David is a permaculture gardener and has served for the past six years as secretary of the acclaimed Beelarong Community Farm in Morningside, where he is head composter and conducts cooking classes. David has a keen interest in world events and has been secretary of the Queensland branch of the Australian Institute of International Affairs for the past 10 years. He lives at Meadowbrook in Logan City with his wife Catherine, two daughters, four granddaughters and some very pampered cats.

Treasurer

Mr. Muthuraj Guruswamy MBA(GlobBus)

Executive Council

Ms. Ingrid Valladares MIntR

Ingrid Valladares is a PhD Candidate affiliated with the Centre for Justice at the Queensland University of Technology. She has a Dual Bachelor of Economics from the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Ecuador and the Université Pierre-Méndes France (UPMF), a Bachelor of Education from the Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja (UTPL), and a Master of International Relations from the University of Queensland.

Most of her work experience was in the Ecuadorian government, where she held the positions of Electoral Officer and Policy Analyst. Ingrid has also worked for AIIA Victoria as an Office Coordinator. She was also a board member of the United Nations Association of Australia – Young Professionals (UNYP – Qld Division). She volunteered as a Senior Correspondent and as a member of the Advocacy Team for the Organisation for World Peace.

Associate Professor Popi Sotiriadou PhD

Dr. Popi Sotiriadou is a Councillor at the Australian Institute of International Affairs in Qld and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She is an esteemed expert at the intersection of sports, soft power, technologies, management, and marketing. Her extensive research and expertise focus on (a) soft power and the ability of sports and sporting events to shape perceptions, build relationships, and exert influence on a global scale and (b) analysing and improving the strategic and operational aspects of sports organizations. She has delved into various areas such as sport technologies, pathways, governance, policy, sponsorship, consumer behaviour, and event management. Dr. Sotiriadou’ s research interests focus on managing high-performance sport, elite athlete branding, Olympics, and sport development systems and policy for inclusivity and equity in sports.

The Honourable Colin Forrest SC

Colin, has degrees in Arts and Law and is a barrister specializing in arbitration and mediation in family law property disputes all over Australia. He served as a trial judge of the Family Court of Australia for 10 years from 2010 to 2020 after 20 years at the Bar in Brisbane during which he was President of the Family Law Practitioners’ Association of Queensland. He was also a sessional member of the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal before taking up judicial office and is now a Judicial Sessional Member again. He was Queensland’s Public Interest Monitor for several years prior to his judicial appointment. He is the Queensland Director of the Australian Institute of Family Law Arbitrators and Mediators and is completing a part-time Masters degree in International Relations at the University of Queensland. Colin speaks German and some Japanese after having lived for a year in each of Germany and Japan as a young man. He has travelled extensively in Europe, Asia and South America.

Mr. Graeme Kerridge MBA, MHealthEC, MEcSt

Graeme Kerridge is an international health development management consultant who has worked in over 25 countries throughout Africa, Asia and the Pacific and in the countries of the former Soviet Union.

Mr. Kerridge has worked as a consultant and technical team leader on assignments funded by USAID, AusAID (DFAT), GIZ and other donors. He has particularly focused on assignments supporting grants from the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM). From 2012 till September 2016, he worked in Washington DC as Technical Manager for the USAID-funded GMS project, managing and overseeing numerous Global Fund related assignments throughout the world. Countries in which Mr Kerridge has worked include Bangladesh, Cambodia, Malaysia, India, Nepal, Indonesia, Laos, Mongolia, Fiji, PNG, Solomon Islands, Western Pacific regional, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, Malawi, Lesotho, South Africa, Tanzania, Southern Africa regional, Moldova, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Georgia.

In addition to undergraduate degrees in Economics and Health Administration, Graeme Kerridge has a Master of Health Economics, a Master of Economic Studies (Economic Development and a Master of Business Administration. He has held adjunct appointments and provided lectures to graduate programs at several universities around Australia. He is on the Technical Advisory Board of Results International (Australia), an NGO which advocates for international health and poverty reduction.

Mr. Reimen Hii

Reimen is an Australian barrister with a practice focussing on commercial litigation, family law, and international/cross-jurisdictional disputes. He is passionate about helping Australians understand and engage with international affairs. He believes Australians have a unique opportunity to meet the challenges being presented in the interconnected world we live in.

Reimen’s interest in international affairs is in part due to his Chinese-Malaysian heritage, his time working abroad in Tonga and Cambodia, and teaching Public International Law at the University of Queensland.

To follow Reimen on LinkedIn, click here.

Mr. Charlie Shandil MPubAdmin

Charlie Shandil is a senior executive with the Australian Public Service, where he has worked across a range of issues including global governance, national security, immigration, and innovation. In addition to his public service career, Charlie has held board positions in the non-profit sector focusing on international development and social justice.

In a testament to his achievements, Charlie was awarded the distinguished Chartered Accountants Leadership in Government Award, the Macquarie Global Leadership Award, and he was also named a distinguished alumni from his alma mater, the University of Queensland. Charlie’s achievements have also been recognized internationally where he has been appointed an Obama Leader (Asia Pacific), a Millennium Fellow at the Atlantic Council and a McCain Global Leader.

Charlie holds an Executive Certificate in Public Leadership (Harvard), a Master in Public Administration (Canberra), Postgraduate Certificate in Politics & Public Policy (Macquarie), and a Bachelor of Science (Queensland).

Captain Kasper Kuiper