Dr.  Zhihong Chen is the newly appointed Associate Director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Melbourne, visiting from Nanjing University. Zhihong’s research interests include intra-group communication in companies, cross-cultural communication and business Chinese. Zhihong has extensive experience teaching Chinese to non-background language learners. She will be responsible for the Confucius Institute’s teacher management and course development. She looks forward to enhancing understanding of Chinese language and culture in the local business community, as well as facilitating connections between China and Australia.

Rowan Callick, Asia-Pacific editor for The Australian and a former Beijing-based Chinacorrespondent for the newspaper has launched his latest book, Party Time – a groundbreaking book of reportage and analysis about the Chinese Communist Party. For more than 20 years, Rowan has written on issues impacting China, Hong Kong and the Asia Pacific region. He was previously the China correspondent (based in Hong Kong) for the Australian Financial Review and a senior writer with Time magazine.
He received the Graham Perkin Award for Journalist of the Year in 1995 and has won two Walkley Awards for Asia-Pacific coverage. Rowan is also the author of Comrades and Capitalists: Hong Kong Since the Handover. Rowan writes the regular Comment contribution for Australia China Connections. To read Rowan’s latest column in Australia China Connections, following his October 2012 trip to Shanghai and his observations of China’s middle class, click here.

 

Former China correspondent for The Australian newspaper, Michael Sainsbury is the new China bureau chief for the UK Daily Mail. Michael has lived and worked in the capital since 2010 reporting on China’s economic and political changes. With a background in economics and business writing, Michael continues to freelance on such topics and all things China, including in his regular Little Red Blog – www.little-red-blog.com. Originally from Sydney, Michael remains based in Beijing.

 

 

Ross Keene has recently joined Jones Day as Of Counsel in its Shanghai office.  Ross was previously Chief Representative of the Shanghai office of top tier Australian law firm Allens Arthur Robinson.  Jones Day is a leading US-based international law firm with over 2400 lawyers in 38 offices in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. In his new position at Jones Day, Ross will continue to work both on foreign direct investment projects into China, as well as Chinese outbound investments, particularly into Australia. In late February Ross was recognized by Chambers, the preeminent directory for the legal profession, as a leading international lawyer in China both for mergers and acquisitions and also for energy and natural resources. Ross, who is originally from Melbourne, has been based in Shanghai for over seven years and has also spent considerable time in Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Beijing.

 

 

China Southern Airlines has appointed Nikki Woodward to its Brisbane office as Sales Development Executive Queensland. Nikki worked for more than a decade in the tourism industry including seven years in retail with Flight Centre, account management roles with World Aviation representing Finnair and Air Pacific and more recently as a Sales Manager with Air Tickets. Nikki joins one of the world’s largest airlines as China Southern continues to expand in Australia. “I can’t wait to promote China Southern to the Australian market during this exciting time of expansion and hope to play a role bridging Chinese and Western cultures in the Queensland travel industry,” she said. From June 25, China Southern will increase direct flights between Brisbane to Guangzhou from four services per week, to five.

 

The AustCham China Scholarship Program has welcomed the 2013 intake of graduates to Beijing. The initiative offers young Australian university graduates international career opportunities and a future in the Chinese business marketplace. The programme is a cooperative initiative founded by AustCham with funding from the Australian Government’s Australia-China Council and this year’s major sponsor ANZ. Graduates were selected from more than 160 applicants.

 

2013 scholarship winners and their placements in China:

 

Matthew Somerville-Brown, the University of Western Australia – BlueScope Steel in Guangzhou.

 

Michael Gubieski, The University of Melbourne – China Policy in Beijing.

 

Adam Jahnke, The University of Melbourne – Cochlear in Beijing.

 

James Hillman, the University of Newcastle – Hastings Funds Management in Beijing.

 

Carl Claringbould, Monash University – Riverstone Advisory in Beijing.

 

James Tang, the University of Western Australia – Runge Pincock Minarco in Beijing.

 

Philip Wright, the University of Technology, Sydney – Westpac in Shanghai.

 

To learn more about the Scholarship Program, contact JJ Chen: T: +86 10 6595 9252 or

E: jj.chen@austcham.org. ■

*Pictured: Donna Li, Deputy General Manager, ANZ Beijing, 2013 AustCham China Scholarship winners, David Olsson, Chairman, AustCham Beijing

 

 

 

 

If your organisation has an Australia-China human resources related announcement to make, or you know of people on the move, please send details to the editor: sophiel@chinaconnections.com.au