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.

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Vice-President

Mr Reimen Hii (acting)

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.

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Secretary

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.

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Treasurer

Mr Muthuraj Guruswamy MBA(GlobBus)

Muthuraj Guruswamy (Raj) is currently the Commercial Manager for Qube Bulk. He is a Mechanical Engineer and has an MBA. Raj has over 3 decades of experience in various industries across many Asian countries including Australia and New Zealand. He has held various senior positions in companies across industries including building industry, transportation, mining, logistics, real estate, security, manufacturing, and has developed business internationally and had worked as an ex-pat in India setting new logistics business. Director and advisor to Logistics companies, has a wide interest in the Geopolitics which affect the economies of the country.

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Executive Council

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.

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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.

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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).

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Ms Gabriela Hernández

Gabriela Hernández is a student at the University of Queensland, studying a Master of Development Economics and Economics and Public Policy after graduating with a Bachelor of International Relations from the Universidad Iberoamericana.

With over four years of experience in the public and private sectors, Gabriela has worked across issues including international development, trade and foreign policy. Prior to her nomination as a councillor, she was a research assistant at the Cámara de Senadores responsible for investigating policy areas affecting Mexico’s international agenda. Working in similar areas of international affairs, Gabriela was also employed at the Centro de Información with the United Nations and the Council of Foreign Affairs in Mexico.

Gabriela is fluent in Spanish and English and is proficient in French.

She is also a former intern of the AIIA Queensland.

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Ms Jemma Trelour

Jemma is an undergraduate at Griffith University, where she is pursuing a dual-degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice, and Government and International Relations, with a major in Security, Conflict, and Human Rights. Her commitment to humanitarian work has taken her across Asia, North America, and Europe, where she has actively contributed to climate change policy and refugee outreach initiatives. These global experiences, including involvement with the United Nations, have also enabled her to gain proficiency in Russian and German language, with aspirations to further her linguistic skills in Eastern Europe in the future.

Alongside her studies, Jemma serves as an ambassador for the prestigious New Colombo Plan scholarship. She is a member of the Griffith University Council and provides advisory input on the Youth Advisory Board for the U.S. Consul General’s Brisbane branch, and Global Shapers Brisbane. Additionally, Jemma is deeply engaged with the Australian Red Cross, Disaster Relief Australia, and international NGOs, where she contributes to disaster resilience efforts in the context of climate change and conflict on both domestic and global scales.

Mrs Diana Lopes

Mrs Diana Lopes was appointed Honorary Consul for Queensland in November 2015. Since March 2018 she has also served as the Treasurer of the Consular Corps of Queensland. Born in Portugal and educated in Portugal, United Kingdom and Australia with studies in the field of Agriculture, Business Management and Community Services (Disability). Holds a BSc Agriculture and a MSc Tropical Agriculture from Wye College, University of London (later Imperial College) with further studies from Imperial College @Ascot, U.K. and Queensland University of Technology.

Professional experience as an Agriculturalist in the United Kingdom, Kenya and Mozambique both as a consultant and a researcher as well as in the field of Health – Disability in Australia. She is fluent/ proficient in multiple languages, including Portuguese, English, Spanish, French and Italian and is well travelled with a diverse employment background, having lived and worked in Portugal, United Kingdom, Mozambique, Australia and Guam. In Australia she has been actively involved as a volunteer with several organisations including  Meals on Wheels, the Balmoral Community Centre, the South African Film Festival, Portugal Week, as well as numerous Consular Corps of Queensland events.

Dr Tess Newton Cain

Dr Tess Newton Cain is Principal Consultant at Sustineo P/L where she leads on governance, security and geopolitics work. She is also an adjunct Associate Professor at the Griffith Asia Institute. Tess is a dual citizen of Vanuatu and the United Kingdom. She holds a PhD and LLB (Hons) from the University of Wales, Cardiff. Tess has more than 25 years of experience working in the Pacific islands region as an academic (with the University of the South Pacific), researcher, and adviser. She has an extensive publications record and is a well known media commentator on issues related to politics, diplomacy, Pacific regionalism and security issues in the Pacific islands region.

Captain Kasper Kuiper