The Board of the Directors are elected annually by AustCham Shanghai members to set direction and oversee governance arrangements for the Chamber. Each Board Director is elected for a two-year term and each year there are five positions up for election. All members of the Board of Directors are voluntary and part-time with the exception of the Executive Director.
Members of the Board of Directors come from a wide range of corporate backgrounds and bring with them diverse professional backgrounds and in-depth experience of successful, commercially profitable China businesses.
Each corporate member nominates a representative nominee with voting rights, exercisable at the Annual General Meeting. During this meeting, members elect the Board and vote on other chamber business. The Board of Directors also meet throughout the year to conduct general chamber business.
Managing Director, Greater China, HAYS
Simon has over 18 years consulting and management experience within the professional recruitment industry in UK, Australia and China. After8 years with Hays Australia, Simon transferred to Shanghai in 2012 and is currently the Managing Director for Hays’ operations across the Greater China region.
In this role, Simon oversees over 250 staff across 6 offices (Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen & Hong Kong SAR), and is a member of the Hays Asia operational Board. Simon is a graduate of the University of Western Australia (BSc), maintains a keen personal interest in sustainable development and is passionate about talent development and cross-cultural management.
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Managing Director of Asia Pacific Property Group
Craig is a China professional with more than 15 years of living and working in China; his success as a small business owner has come from his hands on approach and relentless determination.
He understands the opportunities and challenges in China having worked in large MNC’s along with starting his own business.
His passion for real estate in Queensland has seen him win different awards for excellence in sales and marketing prior to China.
Craig has been involved with Rotary International where he held many different positions during his tenure along with Camp Quality in Queensland managing fund raising events.
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Executive Director and General Manager
Bede Payne is the Executive Director and General Manager of the Australian Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai (AustCham Shanghai). He leads a diverse, international team to strengthen Australia-China business, government and community relationships.
Bede has spent the past five years living, studying, and working in China. He is driven by the need to help Australians better understand China and to encourage the development of lasting international people-to-people relationships. He believes that our global collective interests are served through sustainable Australia-China trade and investment.
CFO of BlueScope Steel
Jim has been appointed as CFO of BlueScope China to lead the commercial stewardship of the China business, also to play a key role in supporting and driving new growth in the China market. As a Chartered Accountant, Jim brings a diversity of experience to China, having led large commercial functions with Amcor and Singtel Optus before joining BlueScope. Before this China role, he was leading BlueScope Internal Audit function where he and his global team have worked with management to improve BlueScope’s governance, risk management and internal control environment.
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Managing Director of Camel Hospitality Group
Based in Shanghai since 1999, Todd has a background in quality control and manufacturing, working on supplying Australian customers such as Bunnings, the AFL and K-Mart.
Since 2010 Todd has been growing the Camel Hospitality Group which owns and manages four bars, five restaurants and three F45 gyms.
Todd has a degree in International Trade, a diploma in export management and speaks fluent Mandarin. With his 20 plus years on the ground in China working across a range of different industries, he has a great understanding of Chinese business.
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Managing Partner of Fragomen (Shanghai) Co Ltd
• Becky Xia is the Managing Partner responsible for Fragomen’s practice in China. She specializes in managing talent movement into China and supporting global clients within the region and other locations.
• Becky has almost 18 years of experience in immigration. As the leading professional in the increasingly complex area of China immigration, she is experienced in assisting multinational corporations, financial institutions, and other global employers with employment-based immigration and investor visas.
• Becky advises clients on immigration-related compliance as well as strategies for the transfer of expatriate workforce into China and throughout the country.
• Becky also takes care of China-based global clients and assists overseas Fragomen offices to help Chinese nationals obtain overseas visas
• Becky is a regular speaker on immigration-related topics at seminars and conferences throughout China
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CEO and Founder, HEIDI
An Australian living in China for over 22 years, Heidi is recognized as a media darling with a long running popular TV program with over 6 million viewers daily, is a live host of Oriental Shopping channel completing up to $2 million in sales in one and a half hours, a consultant to multinational Fortune 500 companies and a management consultant and corporate trainer in negotiation, goal setting, communication and platform skills. Through these roles Heidi has assisted senior management of both Western and Chinese global organizations to better understand the local environment, foreign work culture in China and their strategic placement in the market.
With one foot in Australia, and one in China, Heidi’s business skills and strategies are reinforced by her unique and deep understanding of the cultures in both countries.
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Lead China Partner, Azure Group
Stephanie is a highly qualified chartered accountant with extensive experience in the accounting and finance industries, both in Australia and in China.
Stephanie has worked with businesses in numerous industries including media, IT technology, manufacturing and retail, and professional services, assisting them with tax compliance, financial reporting, international tax, and assisting Australian companies to set up business in China.
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Managing Director and Partner, Baldwin Boyle Group
Unice Liu is the Managing Director and Partner of Baldwin Boyle Group China, an AsiaPacific-focused reputation management and communications consultancy.
Passionate about helping build connections, understanding and trust between organisations and the people who matter most to them, Unice’s expertise include stakeholder engagement, crisis and issues management, thought leadership building, media relations and digital engagement. Unice has deep experience in leading strategic, multi-market communications programmes across food and agribusiness, travel and tourism, education, real estate and manufacturing sectors.
Based in Shanghai, Unice and her team are focused on helping foreign businesses navigate and leverage China’s media and digital landscape, to best achieve their business objectives.
Prior to joining Baldwin Boyle, Unice is part of a hospitality and tourism branding consulting firm with clients including the Singapore Tourism Board, the National HeritageBoard and the Suntec Convention Centre.
Unice is effectively bilingual and holds a Bachelor (Honours) in Social Sciences(Communications and New Media) from the National University of Singapore.
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Director and Founding Partner of ANKEN Group
Alexandra is an architect from Melbourne who has lived & worked in China for over 22years. She has successfully grown her own business from a 2-person consulting company into an established real estate development, investment and management company with 140 employees and a total past & present property portfolio of454 million RMB under management.
Through this role, Alexandra has needed to attract local & international investors and work with district and city-level Chinese government agencies.
As one of the earliest pioneers of urban regeneration in Shanghai with the transformation of Ferguson Lane, ANKEN Group has made a name for itself as a being committed to sustainability, sensible design and ethical practice.
She is dedicated to bringing this ethical and community-based business approach to the Board.
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