Welcome New AJBCC Members!

The Innovative Research Universities (IRU) is a group of seven Australian universities committed to inclusive education and research impact that advances our communities. The universities in the IRU were established to expand access to higher education across the country and to foster innovative approaches to both teaching and research. The members of the IRU share a commitment to equity and participation, research translation, sustainability and strengthening engagement with partners in the Indo-Pacific. By working together, the universities in the IRU share best practice, bring constructive, evidence-based contributions to public policy and increase their impact. The members of the IRU are James Cook University, Griffith University, Western Sydney University, the University of Canberra, La Trobe University, Flinders University and Murdoch University.

The AJBCC nominated representative is Paul Harris, Executive Director.

Counsel House is a national government relations firm that offers advocacy and insights that are highly client focused delivered by industry leaders in their chosen fields. Counsel House’s team of directors and advisors have decades of political experience across all sides of politics, allowing us to deliver the highly tailored government relations strategies to our clients no matter the government or the jurisdiction. Counsel House represents INPEX, Japan’s largest source of foreign direct investment into Australia through its investment in Icthys, and its recent investment into the renewable space with a purchase of a 50% stake in ENEL. The Counsel House-INPEX relationship has spanned over four years; with weekly government relations counsel and frequent direct advocacy at both a federal and state level, the relationship is incredibly strong and productive. We are very passionate about our work with INPEX due to this strong relationship and an overarching desire to grow relations between Japan and Australia.

The AJBCC nominated representative is Andrew Porter, Director.

Thomson Geer is a major Australian corporate law firm. We are trusted by companies, governments and institutions to act for their commercial and legal interests.

With more than 650 people, including over 140 partners, operating out of our offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Canberra, we are one of the 10 largest firms operating in Australia. Thomson Geer is a full service firm and many of the firm’s practitioners are acknowledged as leading lawyers in their fields.

The firm’s experience working with Japanese organisations goes back many years and we have invested in developing and maintaining deep relationships. We are now trusted advisors to many large Japanese corporations and provide high quality legal advice for their interests in Australia.

Our clients include the Mitsubishi Group companies including Mitsubishi Motors Australia, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Mitsubishi Hitachi Power. We also have acted for Tokio Marine Nichardo Fire, Nissan Motors, Mazda Australia, Mitsui and Kirin Holdings Company Limited. A partner of Thomson Geer (Stephen Voss) is a director of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Australia and Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Australia.

The AJBCC nominated representative is Nicholas Antonas, Partner.

Orizontas is a boutique corporate advisory consultancy that solves business challenges through strategic advice and deep expertise in political, market, reputational and climate risk. Our energy, environment and climate change group is regarded as one of the strongest in the sector, whilst our industry & government affairs group provides in-depth knowledge, understanding and experience in public sector policy development and decision-making.

Our understanding of Australia’s business environment and government policy and objectives is extensive and highly regarded. Our team of professionals has the proven ability to successfully deliver client outcomes with any number of key stakeholders, be they federal, state and local governments or critical businesses or industry associations across Australia.

The AJBCC nominated representative is Hon. Philip Dalidakis, Chairman & Managing Partner.

We are an ASIC-regulated, Australian boutique investment manager and non-bank lender incorporated in 2016.

Our objective is to generate stable, fixed income style, investment returns through funding high-quality, mortgage secured loan transactions focussing primarily on the Commercial Real Estate Debt sector on the Eastern Seaboard of Australia.

We have experienced significant growth since originating our first loan in mid-2017, recently surpassing $1.3 billion in new loan originations, in close to 300 transactions. To date, we have returned 100% of all investor capital.

Our base of investors includes high net worth individuals, family offices and institutional funders, from Japan, Singapore, China, Mauritius, Switzerland, USA, South Africa and Australia.

Our high-calibre team has over 200 years’ combined experience in credit, property and investment management.

The AJBCC nominated representative is Alan Greenstein, Co-founder and CEO.

KSF Australia was established in April 2023 as a subsidiary of Kita-Sanriku Factory Co Ltd Japan – specifically to create new opportunity for and to market Australia’s high quality sea urchin products. Our mission is to challenge the global issue of ISOYAKE (Sea desertification) which is partly caused by sea urchins. We would like to lead the solution of the issue through working with Australian partners to harvest, process and utilise our expertise of processing and farming of sea urchins and restoration of seabed environments for the benefit of Australia.

The AJBCC nominated representative is Yukinori Shitautsubo, KSF Australia.

Tivan Limited is an ASX listed critical minerals company, renamed from TNG Limited in January 2023. Tivan is developing a strategically significant critical minerals project across northern Australia, and actively exploring tenements in central Australia. Tivan is committed to deep and localised engagement with our stakeholders and partners, including First Nations peak bodies and Traditional Owner groups, across central and northern Australia.

Our major project, Speewah, is located in the East Kimberley, 100km south-west of Kununurra. Speewah the largest, highest-grade vanadium in titanomagnetite resource in the world and capable of supporting an ultra-long life project, measured in the hundreds of years. In February, we announced our return to Darwin’s Middle Arm Sustainability Precinct (MASDP) for our TIVAN+ downstream critical processing facility. MASDP is of strategic national importance with strong planning and funding commitments from all levels of Government. Tivan was the first public proponent to be announced at MASDP, and recently renewed its commitment with the Northern Territory government.

The AJBCC nominated representative is Grant Wilson, Executive Chair, Tivan.

The AJBCC nominated representative is Brett McCarthy, Principal, Yandina.

Brett has over 30 years of experience in the institutional real estate sector in Australia and Japan. He has held roles including commercial real estate valuer (CBRE Australia); REIT equity analyst (UBS Australia); real estate sector investment banker (UBS Japan); and manager of an ASX-listed REIT investing in Japanese shopping centres (Challenger).

Brett lived in Japan for more than nine years and is a Japanese speaker.

Eku Energy is a specialist global battery energy storage business dedicated to advancing the energy transition. Jointly owned by a Macquarie Asset Management managed fund and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, Eku Energy’s purpose-built team brings together specialist technical capabilities, with experience across origination, development, system design, power markets and software optimisation.

Eku Energy develops, builds, and actively manages energy storage assets that facilitate the delivery of safe, secure and reliable clean energy. Our growing global portfolio of over 1.2GWh of digitally enabled, flexible, utility-scale storage projects will provide vital grid services in key markets around the world, including the UK, Australia, Japan, Taiwan and Italy.

The AJBCC nominated representative is Rachel Rundle, Senior Manager Policy and Regulation, Asia Pacific for Eku Energy.

IVG is active in the events and venues space in Japan and Australia.  Our first event in Japan was operating the Australian Pavilion for DFAT at the 2005 Aichi World Expo.  We have a strong partnership with JTB and enjoy close relationships with other leading Japanese companies and brands.

The AJBCC nominated representative is Simon Arnold, Founder & CEO, IVG.