Australians in Asia
Our In-Market Profiles showcase some of the outstanding Australians now working in the Asian region.
Browse through the individuals below and learn about their path to Asia, their jobs, and their visions for building stronger relationships across national borders and cultures.
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Steve Waters, Australian Consul-general in Mumbai The advice I give to businesspeople when they come into India is first take your time. But the first, second and third most important things are due diligence, due diligence and due diligence. |
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Sally Hancock, Project Manager, Space Frame As the nature of my first project was international, I worked with over 10 different nationalities. I have Chinese staff reporting to me directly and split my time between Beijing, Shanghai and Mongolia. |
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Geraldine Cox AM, Country Director and President, Australia Cambodia Foundation, Inc and Sunrise Children's Villages in Cambodia At the age of 25 and coming from a background of peace and stability in Australia, finding myself in the war zone that Cambodia was in 1970, changed me for the rest of my life. |
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Elaine Montegriffo, Country Director, LAO PDR, Oxfam Australia Working in a different culture unearths so much about your own beliefs, preferences and values, allowing you to examine them critically, in a way that you simply do not have to at home. |
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Danny Armstrong, General Manager, China Banking, National Australia Bank Shanghai is an amazing mix of history, tradition and the contemporary all rolled into one... One of the things I enjoy most about living here is the speed at which things move. For example in business - changes to the law and the general economy present enormous new opportunities every day. |
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Jonathan Barlow, Legal Director, Asia Pacific, Hospira It was clear that by spending some time in Japan, I could better get to know my colleagues, our partners, the industry, the market, and most importantly, the culture - which would enable me to better advise and contribute to the growth of our Japanese business. |
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Viisti Dickens, Communications and Change Consultant, V Generation, Vietnam If we want to work with Asia, and be seen by Asia to be part of the region, we have to be humble in our approach and take time to understand intra-Asian relationships as well. |
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Megan Elliott, Director, X|Media|Lab, Beijing, China Beijing is one of the world’s greatest cities. Whether you seek power or art or cuisine or culture; Beijing is the centre of the 21st century. We are privileged to be working here. And we welcome like-minded friends. |
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Ben Holt, Marketing Communications at Tourism Australia, Japan I am responsible for the marketing and communications of Brand Australia in the Japan market - more specifically the ongoing marketing and PR activity surrounding our global message "there's nothing like Australia". |
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Patrick Duffy, Finance, Commercial & Administration Manager, Sagittarius Mines, Philippines The mine development has the potential to add an average one per cent to the Philippines GDP every year for the next 20 years. Thus - I have no difficulty getting motivated for work each day! |
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Luisa Rust, Trade Commissioner, Australian Trade Commission, Shanghai, China Chinese understanding and expectations of leadership are quite different to Australia, so I've had to adapt my style to suit. Chinese are very conscious of hierarchy. It’s very important to understand staff seniority and who has influence in the office, as that is paramount to influencing the rest of the team. |
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Sophie Ford, Timor Leste Red Cross, Dili (In Dili) life is lived in and for the moment. In a work setting this means there is a very different approach to planning and timeframes, which I have found very challenging at times - but I am sure my colleagues are equally confused by my approach! Ultimately it's the cultural differences that make work and life here interesting. |
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Aarti Betigeri, Freelance journalist, Delhi, India India can be frustratingly bureaucratic - so I like it when I am surprised, such as when a seemingly reluctant interviewee divulges useful information. My journalism students are refreshingly enthusiastic and devoid of the world-weary cynicism that I remember from my own student days. |
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Fiona Caulfield, Love Travel Guides, Bangalore, India I’ve been a resident in India for almost six years now and when I leave it feels like someone has turned the volume down and flicked the switch from colour to black and white. |
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Rick Wallace, The Australian, Tokyo, Japan Interpreting a foreign country for your paper’s readers is one of the most interesting things you can do in journalism. |
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Pippa Druce, UNIFEM, Beijing, China The more I recognise my own bias and expectations, the more I can adapt my attitudes to the situation at hand. I always bounce ideas off my Chinese colleagues to try to understand how they would solve a problem. |
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Simon McKenna, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Jakarta, Indonesia It’s amazing how quickly you adapt to the hustle and bustle of a big city – the pace, the smell, crowds. There is never a dull moment and there is always a point in your day where you see something beyond imagination. |
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James Holman, TBWA, Singapore From a professional point of view, the talent that is available here is the best in Asia. Photographers, directors, models, production houses, whatever you want, you can find it here, and chances are it’ll be world class. |
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Lucinda Hartley, [co]design studio, Vietnam and India Working with different cultures reinforces to me that there are no ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ ways of going about problem solving, but differences that we can all learn from. I feel that my perspective has been broadened and that will influence my future life and work. |
The opinions expressed in these profiles are solely those of the authors.
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