American Australian Association Limited | Building Strategic Alliances

Biographies

Mr. Malcolm Binks
Chairman, American Australian Association
Malcolm Binks has been Chairman of the Association since 1999. From 1961 to 1975 he was an executive with The British Petroleum Company and from 1975-1977 was financial advisor to the Canadian Arctic Gas Pipeline project. In 1978, Malcolm joined Merrill Lynch in New York as a Managing Director in the Investment Banking Division, working principally on Australasian and Asia Pacific business. From 1991, he was located in Japan and Hong Kong and was responsible for Merrill Lynch's Investment Banking activities in Japan and the Asia-Pacific Region. In 1995 Malcolm returned to New York as Senior Vice President, Merrill Lynch International with responsibilities for business development in the Asia Pacific Region. He originated Merrill Lynch's acquisition of McIntosh Securities in Australia. He retired from Merrill Lynch in 1999. He is a director of The United States - New Zealand Council and the India-American Chamber of Commerce ( NY) Inc. He is also a member of the Advisory Council of the Korea Economic Institute of America. He has also established a financial advisory consulting business, focusing primarily on Australia and New Zealand.

Hon. Michael Baume AO
Deputy Chairman, American Australian Association
Mr. Michael Baume AO was Australian Consul General in New York from October 1996 until July 2001. In April 2003 he completed his term as a part-time member of the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal. Presently he is a regular columnist for the Australian Financial Review. A member of the House of Representatives from 1975 to 1983 before being elected to the Senate in December 1994, he spent the intervening period as Senior Adviser to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition (now Prime Minister), the Hon John Howard, MP. In government, Mr Baume was Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer (1982-83) following several years as Secretary of the government members' Treasury Committee and chairman of its Taxation sub-committee. Other committee roles included Publications (chairman). In Opposition, as a Senator, he occupied many senior roles including Shadow Minister for The Arts, Heritage, Sport and Youth Affairs, Shadow Minister for Health, Secretary to Shadow Cabinet, founding chairman of the Waste Watch Committee, deputy chairman of the Senate's Environment, Recreation, Communications and the Arts Reference Committee and was a member of the Appropriations and Staffing Committee, various Estimates committees, the Scrutiny of Bills committee as well as the powerful Joint Public Accounts Committee and the committee responsible for the building of the new Parliament House. In 1993 he was a parliamentary representative to the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York, which he also addressed. He has been widely involved in the Arts. Some of his journalistic roles included: Finance Editor of The Bulletin, Investment Editor and London Staff Correspondent for The Australian Financial Review and Finance Editor of The Observer magazine. He created the ABC radio program "The Week in Business", was a frequent TV commentator on finance and was 2GB's nightly financial news broadcaster. He was the Sydney Daily Telegraph's music reviewer. As an author, his book The Sydney Opera House Affair in 1967 is still the prime source of detailed background of the Utzon resignation. In addition, he has written chapters for several other books, such as Len Evans' reference book on Australian wine. In the 1999 Queen's Birthday Honours List Mr Baume was named an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for service to the arts and the development of cultural life in Australia and internationally, to the Australian Parliament and to the financial services industry. In 2001 he was awarded the medal of the Foreign Policy Association of the US for his role in improving US-Australian relations.

Mr. Jeffrey Browne
Jeffrey Browne is a member of the Board of Guardians of the Australian Government's Future Fund, a member of the Advisory Board of the Australian Government Solicitor and a member of the Council of Governors of the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia.

He was Managing Partner of the Australian offices of Sullivan & Cromwell from 1983 to 2005 and an associate of the firm in New York from 1976. During this time he advised many of the top Australian corporations on most of the major corporate and financial transactions involving the United States. He also acted for the Australian Government and several of the Australian States in their transactions in the international capital markets.

From 1969 to 1974, Mr. Browne served with the Diplomatic Service of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra, Ghana, Malaysia, London and Geneva. From 1966 to 1968, he was an Associate to the senior judge of the High Court of Australia.

He holds law degrees from the Universities of Adelaide, Sydney and Harvard and is a member of the New York Bar.

Mr. Mark Barnaba
Mark is a co-founder and the Managing Director of Azure Capital. Mark was also a co founder and Managing Director of GEM Consulting and Poynton and Partners, an Investment Banking and Management Consulting firm. Prior to Poynton and Partners, Mark spent time in industry, investment banking and management consulting. He spent a long period of time with McKinsey & Company in the USA, UK and RSA. In 2002 he was the joint winner of the inaugural WA Business News award for the most outstanding business leader in the State of Western Australia under the age of 40.

After graduating from Trinity College in Perth as Dux, Mark attended the University of Western Australia and received a Bachelor of Commerce degree (1985) with first class honours, being awarded the JA Wood University Medal for top graduate, university wide across all faculties, of his year. Mark then directly entered Harvard Business School receiving an MBA in 1988 and graduating with high distinction as a Baker Scholar.

Mark is Chairman of the University of Western Australia Business School, where he also serves as an Adjunct Professor in Investment Banking and Finance. He is also the Chairman of Alinta Infrastructure Holdings and of Edge Employment Solutions, Deputy Chairman of the West Coast Eagles Football Club, and a Director of Clinical Cell Culture. He is a member of the Securities Industry Research Centre of Asia Pacific Board, as well as being a member of the WA Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committee.

Ms. Frances Cassidy
President
E-mail: frances.cassidy@aaanyc.org
Frances Cassidy is the President of the American Australian Association. Frances has been CEO of Meat and Livestock Australia, Ltd., previously the Australian Meat and Livestock Corporation, since 1990 and a Director of the Association since 1997. Frances is an Australian and has had a distinguished career in business and government which has focused on the development of American – Australian trade and business relationships. She has spent 15 of the last 18 years in the United States, first as Minister-Counselor for Agriculture at the Australian Embassy in Washington, and then, with Meat and Livestock Australia. Frances received a BA from the Australian National University in Economics and Political Science.

Mr. Neil Flett
Neil Flett is director of the international management training consultancy RogenSi. His 90 consultants now train more than 18,000 executives annually around the world, and give communication advice to companies like the Commonwealth Bank, ANZ, HSBC,Westpac and NAB; Microsoft, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, KPMG, Salomon Brothers, IBM, GE Capital, MTV, Barclays, Boral, Woolworths, and many others.

Sir Leo Hielscher AC
B.Comm., D Univ Griffith (Hon), AAUQ, AASA., FAIM., FCPA, FFTP (Hon)

Sir Leo Hielscher has over fifty years’ experience in the areas of Government, the banking and finance industry, domestic and global financial markets, superannuation industry and as an independent Company Director. He was the Under Treasurer of Queensland for 14 years (1974-1988) before his appointment as Chairman of the Queensland Treasury Corporation Advisory Board in 1988. In 1991, the Advisory Board became the Queensland Treasury Corporation Board and Sir Leo was appointed as its inaugural Chairman. Sir Leo is also Chairman of Austsafe Ltd, Independent Superannuation Preservation Fund, and the Queensland Health Reform Advisory Panel. As a Company Director, Sir Leo has considerable experience at Board level and has been associated with a number of public and private sector Boards. Sir Leo was awarded an Eisenhower Fellowship in 1973, a Knight Bachelor in 1987, an Honorary Doctorate of Griffith University in 1993, and a Companion in the Order of Australia (AC) in the General Division in 2004.

Mr. Graham Macdonald
Professor Macdonald has held his current position since 2001. For three years prior to that he was Medical Director at Merck Sharp & Dohme ( Australia), responsible for clinical research, regulatory affairs, medical legal review of promotional materials and medical information services.

Between 1974 and 1998, Professor Macdonald was an academic nephrologist at the Prince Henry and Prince of Wales Hospitals Clinical School of the University of New South Wales. His research interests centred on the role of the uridine nucleotides in vascular modulation and sodium metabolism but, together with his postgraduate students, he conducted research on a wide variety of topics in clinical medicine and mammalian biology.

Mr. Ian Phillips
Deputy Chairman, American Australian Association Ian Phillips has had over 20 years involvement in International Banking, Global Financial Markets and Corporate Finance working in London, New York, Sydney and Wellington. His experience spans both the professional trading and corporate markets. Mr. Phillips has held the position of General Manager and Executive Vice President Americas for the Commonwealth Bank of Australia since December 1996. Mr. Phillips was educated at the Otego University, New Zealand, University of Colorado and the London School of Economics and London Business School. He was the Deputy Chairman of the American Australian Association in New York prior to returning to Australia in 2003. He was the founding member of the Association's Australian Advisory Council and has remained active in the work of the Association.

Mr. Kevin Skelton
Kevin Skelton joined Merrill Lynch in 1986 and is Chairman of Investment Banking in Australia.

Kevin has 25 years experience in investment banking, including 20 years with Merrill Lynch. Kevin has worked in Merrill Lynch’s New York, London, Singapore, Sydney and Melbourne offices where he has been responsible for domestic and cross-border corporate advisory, equity issues and debt financings. Prior to joining Merrill Lynch, Kevin worked in the commercial banking industry, principally in strategic planning and treasury for 8 years.

Kevin holds an Economics degree from the University of Western Australia, has completed post-graduate studies in business and computing at Curtin University, is a member of the Business Council of Australia, an Associate of the Securities Institute of Australia and is a Stanford University Alumni.

Mr. Stephen H. Roberts
Stephen H. Roberts is Chief Executive Officer of Markets & Banking, Citigroup Australia/New Zealand based in Sydney.

Mr Roberts joined Salomon Brothers as an investment banking associate in 1984 and was transferred to Sydney and promoted to Vice President in 1985. In 1989, he was appointed Director with responsibility for opening and heading the FirmÕs Melbourne office. In 1992 he was transferred to London as Director of European Capital Markets. He left Salomon Brothers in August 1995 to work as Regional Head of Capital Markets for Lehman Brothers in Hong Kong. He rejoined Salomon Brothers in August 1996.

Prior to his career with Salomon Brothers, Stephen held positions with the Australian Treasury and the Australian Foreign Service as Vice Consul in New York.

Born in Australia, Stephen holds a Bachelor of Economics degree from Australian National University.

Mr. Bruce T. Richards
Executive Vice President & General Manager National Australia Bank

Bruce Richards is currently Executive Vice President and General Manager - Americas of National Australia Bank. He was appointed to this position in July 2002. Previously, Bruce was Head of the Client Relationship Management Group responsible for relationships with corporations and financial institutions in the Americas, as well as financial institutions in Europe.

Prior to joining National Australia Bank in 2000, he spent twelve years with UBS Warburg as a Managing Director in Corporate Finance and Corporate Lending. In his last position with UBS he was head of the Credit Product and Portfolio Management Group for the Americas.

In earlier roles, he served as Head of Corporate Banking and Head of Financial Institutions. He spent the first fourteen years of his career with The Chase Manhattan Bank. He currently serves as a Director of the American Australian Association and a Trustee of the Institute of International Bankers. He is also active in a number of non-profit organizations. Bruce received a BA degree in Economics from Williams College. He resides in Greenwich, Connecticut with his wife and three children.