ANU Alumnus, Mr. Timothy Coghlan is the 2013 Young Australian Australia China Alumni of the Year.
Australian National University alumnus, Timothy Coghlan has been praised for his “catwalk diplomacy” by the judges of this year’s ACAA / IELTS Australia China Alumni Awards.
Timothy was seen to have “an extremely bright future as a thought leader in Australia’s fashion and creative industries and their role around the world,” through his various positions as a senior manager for Savills luxury retail services, Founder and Managing Editor of English language website Maosuit.com – a website dedicated to the business of fashion and luxury in China, and as Managing Director of the China-Australia Fashion Alliance, which works to strengthen the Australia-China relationship through fashion and business dialogues. 
Timothy holds degrees in both Economics and East Asian Studies (Mandarin), from the Australian National University and is based in Beijing where he leads the luxury retail team for Savills Property Services China, advising some of the world’s most iconic fashion and luxury brands on their China entry, expansion and retail strategies.
His clients include, Louis Vuitton Group, Gucci Group, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, and Tiffany & Co.
In 2011, Timothy created Maosuit.com and has written over 100 articles and opinion pieces on the business of fashion in China for the site. His Australia-China Fashion Alliance (ACFA) project – to provide strategic guidance to the development of Australian fashion and related services in China – received funding through DFAT’s Australia-China Council in 2012.
Earlier this year, Timothy led the first-ever official Chinese fashion industry delegation to Australia and in October brought the first official Australian Fashion Delegation to Beijing to attend China Fashion Week. At this time, he assisted in the formal signing of an Australia-China Fashion Alliance MOU committing the two countries to foster mutual cooperation, open commercial dialogues and facilitate regular fashion industry exchange for government, universities, wool producers, fashion brands and fashion designers.
Since graduating from ANU, Timothy has spent the greater part of his career in Asia with many years in both China and Japan. Timothy also serves as an Australian International Alumni Councilor for China, a Committee Member of the Australia-China Young Professionals Initiative (Beijing Chapter) and is a delegate and the Creative Industries Session organiser for the 2013 Australia-China Youth Dialogue. ■
To read about the other winners of this year’s ACAA / IELTS Australia China Alumni of the Year Awards visit:
ACAA IELTS 2013 Australia China Alumni of the Year: Mr Zili Shao
ACAA Young Chinese Australia China Alumni of the Year Award: Ms Jingjing Xi
Australia China Alumni Award for Research and Innovation: Dr Aihua Wang
Austrade Australia China Alumni Award for Entrepreneurship: Mr Kai Chen
CPA Australia, Australia China Alumni Award for Banking and Finance: Mr Derek Chan
ACAA Australia China Alumni Award for Corporate Achievement: Dr Weihua Sun
Australia China Alumni Award for Women in Leadership: Julie Song
Australia China Connections Magazine Australia China Alumni Award for ICT and New Media: Dr Peng Tao
