Advisory Management Committee

Kevin Hobgood-Brown AM is the Managing Director of Clay International Partners Pty Ltd, a corporate advisory firm focussed on investment and infrastructure projects involving Australia and China. Kevin was an international law firm partner where he had postings in Beijing, San Francisco, Taipei, and Sydney. Kevin was the Deputy Chair of the Australian government’s Australia-China Council from 2007 to 2013. He was the national President of the Australia China Business Council from 2005 through 2008. He is the Chair of the Advisory Board of the China Studies Centre of Sydney University. Kevin taught at the Law School of Beijing University from 1983-87. He is the Chair of the Foundation for Australian Studies in China (FASIC) which provides scholarships to Australian and Chinese post-graduate students and provides support to the 39 Australian Studies Centres located throughout China.

Emeritus Professor Nicholas Jose has made tremendous contributions over the last three decades to cultural interactions between Australia and China, particularly in contemporary art and literature. He was Cultural Counsellor at the Australian Embassy Beijing from 1987-1990. His recent publications include, as co-editor, Everything Changes: Australian Writers and China - A transcultural anthology (2020) and Antipodean China: Reflections on Literary Exchange (2021).  He was pivotal in establishing the influential China Australia Literary Forum (CALF) in 2011, a biannual ongoing program between the China Writers Association and Western Sydney University, where he is now an adjunct professor in the Writing and Society Research Centre. He was Visiting Chair of Australian Studies at Harvard University in 2009-10 and has taught at universities around the world, including Beijing Foreign Studies University and East China Normal University. He is now Emeritus Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Adelaide.

Professor Jose is also a highly esteemed writer, best known for his fiction and cultural essays. He has published seven novels. Avenue of Eternal Peace was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Prize in 1990 and adapted for television. The Custodians was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, South-East Asia, in 1997. A collection of his short fiction, Bapo, appeared in 2014. He was general editor of the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature (2010). His research interests include Australian literature, literary translation, cross-cultural writing and contemporary Chinese art.

Simon Chan is the director and founder of Art Atrium. A practising architect and a passionate art collector for over 30 years, Simon’s long-standing interest in art led to the establishment of Art Atrium, an art gallery exhibiting contemporary Australian and Indigenous art in 2009.

Simon is the Chair of the VisAsia Committee at Art Gallery of NSW supporting and promoting Asian art and culture and a Council member of the Power Institute, Foundation for Art and Visual Culture at The University of Sydney. Simon is a Director and former Chair on the Board of the Aboriginal Benefits Foundation fundraising for various Aboriginal communities throughout Australia with a focus on art and culture. He is also a Director on the Foundation Board of the Australian National Maritime Museum.

Simon is active as a Board member of Multicultural NSW Advisory Board including his role as Chair of the Sydney South Regional Advisory Committee and he was appointed as a Board member of the NSW Government Geographical Names Board. Simon is also involved as a Committee Member of the NSW Government Chinese Garden of Friendship Advisory Committee, a Director on the Board of Contemporary Asian Australian Performance (CAAP) supporting and promoting Asian Australians in performing arts and also a member of the Institute of Australia and China Arts and Culture Management Advisory Committee at Western Sydney University. He was a former Director on the Board of Parramasala, the annual Multicultural arts and culture festival supported by both Multicultural NSW and City of Parramatta and a former member of the Sydney Water Customer Council.

Simon has been involved in a broad range of community organisations including his role as President of Chinese Australian Forum (CAF), a not for profit, non-partisan Chinese Australian community organisation engaging Chinese Australians in Australian social, political, economic and environmental issues. He is also the Immediate Past President of Haymarket Chamber of Commerce, a not for profit organisation acting as a conduit to facilitate a dialogue between the Chinese community and all levels of Government and also as a custodian to protect and enhance the historical and cultural significance of Chinatown for future generations. He is also a Committee member of the Woollahra Council Cultural Committee and as a Community Ambassador at Art Gallery of NSW.

Simon was the recipient of the inaugural NSW Premier’s Multicultural Award for Arts & Culture in 2013.

Dr Minglu Chen is a senior lecturer in the Department of Government and International Relations and a member of the China Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. Her research concentrates on social and political change in China, especially the interaction between entrepreneurs and the state and women’s political participation. She has published her research in The China Quarterly, TheChina Journal and Journal of Contemporary China.

Ariel Zhang is the Arts Initiatives Manager at Hope Charity Foundation (BHCF) and TWT Property Group in Sydney. She manages the Creative Precinct in St Leonards, where various cultural exchange programs run throughout the year. She also manages all corporate initiatives in supporting the art ecosystem, including public art projects for property development, TWT Excellence Prize for UNSW Art & Design Annual Exhibition, artist residency for locals and from China, art partnerships as well as the corporate art collection. Through BHCF’s major support for Big Anxiety Research Center, Ariel advocates for the power of art on improving people’s mental wellbeing.