Board Of Directors

Dr John Yu AC - Chair

John Yu was the Chancellor of the University of New South Wales from January 2000 till July, 2005. He is Chair of the Advisory Council of the International Centre of Excellence for Asia Pacific Studies at the ANU, Chair of the Centre for Asian Art and Archeology at Sydney University and Chair of the The George Institute for International Health.

He is a paediatrician and was formerly Chief Executive of the Children’s Hospital at Camperdown and then at Westmead. He is a Fellow of Royal Australian College of Physicians and Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators and has honorary doctorates from University of Western Sydney, University of Sydney and University of NSW. He was awarded the Sachs Medal of the Health Services Association of Australia and the Weary Dunlop Medal of Asia Link.

He was a member of the Australia China Council of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade from 1997-2006 and the Chair from 1999. He was the inaugural Chair of the Specialist Advisory Council of the NSW Commission for Children and Young People and a member of the NSW Public Education Council. He serves on the National Board of the Australian Cancer Research Foundation.

He was formerly Deputy President of the Board of Trustees of the Art Gallery of NSW, he is Chairman of VisAsia within the Gallery. He was previously on the Board of the Powerhouse Museum, National Board of Musica Viva, the Penrith Regional Gallery and St.Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney. He is Patron of the Association of Children’s Hospital of Australia, Seasons of Growth (Sisters of St Joseph) and of Child Safe. He was a member of the foundation Boards of the Malcolm Sargent Cancer Fund for Children and the Starlight Foundation.

He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 1989, a Companion of the Order in 2001 and was named 1996 Australian of the Year.

Ms Elsa Atkin

Elsa Atkin recently retired after twelve years as Executive Director of the National Trust of Australia (NSW) (1994-2005). Elsa is an executive with 40 years experience as change agent, public advocate, senior manager and board director. She has a focus on Australia’s cultural and social development and a strong track record and ongoing commitment to making worthwhile contributions to these issues.

Elsa is a cultural management consultant and company director. She is a member of the Library Council of NSW, and a board member of Symphony Australia and the Sydney Community Foundation and chairs its Projects Committee. She is also a member of the National Breast Cancer Foundation Global Illumination Committee and a member of General Sir John Monash Foundation Awards Committee.

Formerly, she was Deputy Director of the Evatt Foundation (1990-1993), spent ten years in management at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Media and Corporate Relations (1980-1990) and was the Director of COASIT (Italian Welfare Centre 1978-1980). She also worked in administrative roles in London, Rome and Nurenburg.

She has previously served on many government and other boards including as a member of the Heritage Council of NSW, Council member of the University of Western Sydney (Nepean Campus), member of the Council of Advice (Western Sydney University Graduate School of Management), member of the Immigration Review Panel, rotating chair of the NSW Women and Arts Festival, member of the NSW Women’s Advisory Council to the Premier, and was appointed an Australia Day Ambassador.

Elsa is honorary Life Member of the National Trust and a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Mrs Joanna Capon

Is an Art Historian, Industrial Archaeologist, curator, writer, cataloguer and lecturer.

She was on the Board of The Children’s Hospital at Westmead from 2000-2004 and has been a member of the Advisory Council of The Children's Hospital at Westmead since 2005. She was first the chairwoman and then a member of the Health Care Quality Council from 2001 at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead and has been a member of the Governance Committee at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead since 2003. She has been Chairwoman of the Operation Art Management Committee, a joint initiative between The Children’s Hospital at Westmead and the NSW Dept of Education and Training, since 1997, and the honorary art-curator at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead since 1995.

She was a committee member of the Arts Visual Art and Crafts Committee of NSW Ministry for the Arts from 1997 to 2005 and has been the Chairwoman of the Board of the Australian Centre for Photography since 2000; a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Art and Australia since 2003; and a Board member of Museums and Galleries NSW, since 2005.

She has written two books, Plaster Work. Styles, History, Materials, Suppliers. A Practical Guide (Random House, Australia, August 1991) and Guide to the Museum’s of China (Orientations, 2002) and published articles and lectured on Australian, European and Chinese art, industrial archaeology and the relevance of art as part of a healing environment.

Mr Peter Church OAM

Co-founder and Managing Director of the Asean Focus Group, Peter Church is an international lawyer and corporate adviser. His involvement in business relations between Australia and the South-East Asian region spans more than 35 years. He has authored and edited several books focused on business in Asia. He has a number of other Asia-related business roles including:

• Special Counsel to Blake, Dawson Waldron;
• Chairman of Thai law firm Bangkok International Associates Limited;
• Member of the global Board of Directors of IMAP (the International Network of Merger and Acquisition Partners);
• Member of the Advisory Boards of eangelz.com (an Asia-wide networking organisation based in Singapore) and of Indonesia's Aksara Foundation (a charitable organisation that promotes dialogue on important social, economic and political issues in Indonesia).

Peter is a former member of the Australian Federal Government's Trade Policy Advisory Council and APEC Committee and a former President of the Australia Indonesia Business Council and Australia ASEAN Business Council.

Professor Andrew Coats

Andrew Coats is Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Community) at the University of Sydney, where he was previously Dean of the Faculty of Medicine.

Prior to his appointment as Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sydney, Professor Coats was Viscount Royston Professor of Cardiology, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College School of Medicine, London, UK and Associate Medical Director, Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust, London, UK.

Andrew was born in Melbourne, attended Melbourne Grammar and then trained as an undergraduate in medicine at Oxford (preclinical) and Cambridge (clinical years) before completing his general medical and cardiological training in Melbourne, Australia. He returned to the UK to undertake research under the supervision of Peter Sleight and James Conway in Oxford where he continued his interests in hypertension, heart failure and cardiovascular physiology. Since February 1999 he has been Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Cardiology. He has more than 1,2 00 publications in the fields of heart failure and hypertension including over 450 peer reviewed journal papers and has been chairman or Steering Committee member of the following major morbidity/mortality trials: EXIST, REPLACE, SENIORS, CHARM, OVERTURE, COPERNICUS, OPTIMAAL, and CHRISTMAS.

Andrew has trained in business management with an MBA from London Business School. His interests have been in strategic transformations, organisational behaviour and managing change. He led a review of NHS research into London regions and has led a group in research governance analysis.

Mr Don Green

Don Green is a Fellow Chartered Accountant, a Fellow CPA and is a Senior Partner of Ernst & Young Australia, where he leads the Oceania Transaction Tax practice. He is a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Studies in Money, Banking and Finance at Macquarie University.

Don played a key role in the establishment of the Friends of the Mater Foundation for the Mater Misericordiae Hospital and is a member of the Foundation's Investment Advisory Committee. He is a Director of the Australian Council for Infrastructure Development and has participated on professional committees of the Institute of Chartered Accounts over a number of years.

Mr Jason Yat-sen Li

Jason has an Arts/Law degree with first class honours from the University of Sydney and a Masters of Law from New York University Law School.

From 1996 - 1998, Jason worked for the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, in The Hague, the Netherlands. In 1997, Jason returned to Australia to establish a political party to combat the racist politics of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation and was also elected to the Australian Constitutional Convention. He was instrumental in drafting and brokering support for the model of republican government put to Australian voters in the 1999 national Republic Referendum.

Jason was Deputy Chair of the Australian Republican Movement, Youth Chair of the NSW Ethnic Communities Council, Chair of the Community Aid Abroad International Youth Parliament and cultural spokesperson for NSW Tourism during the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Jason is presently a board member of the Sydney Institute, the National Centre for Volunteering and the New South Wales Government’s Sydney Metropolitan Strategy Group, as well as a Governor of the Smith Family.

Jason speaks fluent Mandarin, Cantonese, German and Dutch. He joined Insurance Australia Group (IAG) in 2002 to lead the company’s initiatives on climate change, disaster research and policy, and community risk-reduction and was subsequently appointed Head of China Strategy. He moved to Beijing with his family in 2004 as General Manager - Sales & Marketing, for IAG’s operations in China.

In 2006, Jason led a major campaign to improve road-safety in China that won the China International PR Association Silver medal for Best Campaign and the Economic Observer Award for most Creative Campaign.

Most recently, Jason established Yatsen Associates, a China market-entry and corporate advisory firm that assists companies enter the China market.

Professor Stephen MacMahon

Stephen MacMahon is a Principal Director of The George Institute for International Health. He is also Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and Epidemiology at The University of Sydney and Honorary Consultant Epidemiologist at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. He also holds honorary professorial appointments at Peking University Health Sciences Center and The University of Auckland.

Stephen is Chairman of the Foundation Council of the Initiative for Cardiovascular Health Research in Developing Countries (IC Health) - a development of the Global Forum for Health Research and the World Health Organization. He is also a member of the Council of the International Society of Hypertension.

[list of journal articles on PubMed]

Professor Robyn Norton

Robyn Norton is a Principal Director of The George Institute for International Health, Professor of Public Health and Associate Dean (International) within the Faculties of Health at The University of Sydney. She holds an Honorary Professorship at the Peking University Health Science Center in Beijing, China, and is an Honorary Consultant Epidemiologist at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney.

Robyn is Chair of the Road Traffic Injuries Research Network, an initiative supported by the Global Forum for Health Research, the World Health Organization and the World Bank, and Acting Chair of the Australian Coalition for Global Health Research.

[list of journal articles on PubMed]