Our People
AIIA WA Committee
President
Mr John Goodlad
Vice Presidents
Ms Amy Blundell and Professor Samina Yasmeen
Secretary
Ms Molly Rogers-Thomson
Hon Treasurer
Ms Claire Rentdorff
Committee Members
Dr Sue Boyd (Immediate Past President), Ms Gráinne O’Connell, Ms Amy Hallam, Ms Nancye Miles-Tweedie, Ms Candy Cheung, Ms Natalie Meyer, and Mr Wade McCagh.
Bursary Officer
Ms Rebecca White
For general enquiries please contact: wa.branch@20.185.176.227 or (08) 6225 2515
Mr John R Goodlad
John is a former diplomat. He is currently an Investment Advisor at Hartleys Ltd where he specialises in assisting Australian and International clients manage their wealth. Prior to joining Hartleys, John spent 16 years as a policy officer with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (including postings to Bangkok and Jakarta). He speaks Thai, Indonesian, some Mandarin and basic French. John has degrees in Arts and Law from the University of Melbourne. John also has a Master of International Law qualification from the Australian National University. John is currently a member of the Artrage Board which run the Perth Fringe Festival. He was, until recently, on the Board of the Methodist Ladies College in Perth and the Chair of the MLC Foundation. Prior to that John was the President of the Western Australian Club He is married (his wife is a former diplomat too) with 2 children – all of whom share his interest in international travel, language study and foreign affairs. He is currently learning Spanish.
Professor Samina Yasmeen
Samina is Director of the Centre for Muslim States and Societies, and lectures in Political Science and International Relations at the University of Western Australia (UWA), Perth.
She is a specialist in political and strategic developments in South Asia especially Pakistan, the role of Islam in world politics, and citizenship among Australian immigrant women. Her current research focuses on the role of Islamic militant groups in Pakistan’s foreign policy.
Professor Yasmeen was a member of the National Consultative Committee of International Security Issues (2005–2008); a member of the Australian Multicultural Advisory Council (AMAC) 2009-2011; member of the Council for Immigration Services and Status Resolution (2009-2011), and the Australian Multicultural Council (AMC) from 2011-2014. She is currently a member of the National Australia Day Council (NADC), and the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. She also serves as a member of the National Consultative Committee of the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies, University of Melbourne, a Vice-President of the Australian Institute for International Affairs (WA Branch), and a member of the Red Cross WA International Humanitarian Law Committee. Samina Yasmeen is the recipient of the 2011 WA Citizenship Sir Ronald Wilson Leadership Award, and was inducted into the WA Women’s Hall of Fame on 8 March 2012. She was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Institute of International Affairs in November 2012 and received the Award of the Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in June 2014.
Ms Amy Blundell
After joining the AIIA WA as one of the youngest faces back in 2007 as the inaugural joint recipient of the Peter Sim Prize from UWA, Amy has worked her way up into the senior ranks of the AIIA WA Committee being elected as one of the two Vice Presidents at the last AGM. Amy has an intimate understanding of the workings of AIIA having served as the immediate past Honorary Secretary for two years from 2013. She was also instrumental in establishing the Young Professionals Network and transforming the demographic landscape of WA’s membership base, which now has a healthy representation of students and young professionals under the age of 35.
Outside of her voluntary contributions to AIIA WA, Amy is Community Development Manager for Australia’s largest independent residential property development, Satterley Property Group. In this role, she oversees the activation of nine residential communities from Perth’s northern coastal suburb of Jindalee right down to Busselton in the South West running community events and various community capacity building initiatives.
“Working in such a localised field, I am able to feed my broader interest in international affairs through my involvement in the Australian Institute of International Affairs. Not only have I has the pleasure of meeting and volunteering with some incredible people, but my extracurricular involvement with AIIA WA has allowed me to learn a whole bunch of skills I wouldn’t have otherwise acquired in my professional career to date. I’m grateful for the great experience so far and am looking forward to seeing the AIIA WA grow in 2015 and beyond.”
Dr Sue Boyd
Sue is a graduate of UWA and spent 34 years in the Australian Foreign Service, with postings in Portugal, East Berlin, UN New York, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Fiji. After returning to WA in 2003, she joined the Board of Gold Corporation, the Senate of UWA, the External Advisory Board of the Pacific Regional Human Rights Organisation, and became President of the AIIA (WA). She continues on the UWA Senate, is on the Editorial Committee member of the In the Zone Conference, is a Director of Volunteering WA, and Immediate Past President of the AIIA (WA). Sue is also a Senior Executive Business Coach.
Ms Grainne O’Connell
Gráinne joined the AIIA WA in 2007, while studying a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Japanese at UWA.
In recent years Gráinne has volunteered in various AIIA committee roles, including Secretary in 2014/15 and is currently Program Director for WA.
She works in Learning and Development for Wesfarmers Chemicals, Energy and Fertilisers and has a background in education and training in government and private industry.
A dual Irish-Australian citizen, she has a deep interest in world affairs, and is passionate about intercultural exchange and citizen diplomacy; developed through her international studies, travel and work.
Gráinne has assisted Australian national delegations to Japan in several large scale international karate tournaments and while living in Japan she competed in the All Japan Kyokushin Karate tournament.
Ms Nancye Miles-Tweedie
Nancye Miles-Tweedie is a former employee of DFAT. Since completing two overseas postings to Jakarta, and Tokyo, Nancye has married and has had three children in Perth.
Nancye has an interest in photography and social media and has been utilising these skills in her AIIA WA committee role since 2014.
Nancye also takes minutes for various other committees. She is a volunteer researcher on the Western Front Dead from W.A. project with local historian, Shannon Lovelady. She is a committee member of ROSL WA (Royal Over-Seas League). She volunteers once a week at PLC’s Archives department and is the director of Western Suburbs Concierge Services.
Nancye enjoys all these roles, but especially enjoys the company of her three teenaged kids, and all that their exciting lives entail.
Ms Amy Hallam
Amy has recently returned to her home town Perth after living, working and studying in China for six years. During this time she represented the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) as an Australian Youth Ambassador for Development (AYAD), following her placement she worked for an international consultancy company specialising in Environmental, Social and Health Impact Assessments on significant projects in the Oil, Gas & Mining sector across Asia Pacific, Eurasia and Africa. Amy developed professional language fluency in Mandarin and also has a cultural and geographical understanding of the greater region gained through independent travel in Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Myanmar, Mongolia and North Korea. Amy is passionate about strengthening international engagement and economic development outcomes for Western Australia which is her focus in her new role as Senior Business Development Manager at the Perth Convention Bureau. Amy has a higher tertiary education background with a Bachelor Degree (First Class Honours) and Postgraduate Diploma in Science from Melbourne University.
Ms Candy Cheung
Candy completed her undergraduate studies at The University of Western Australia with a Bachelor of Laws (Hons.) and Commerce. Candy also has a Graduate Certificate in Chinese Law from Murdoch University after completing postgraduate studies at the City University of Hong Kong.
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