Chair
Dr Scott Watkins
Appointed as Chair on 6 March 2025 for five years
Dr Scott Watkins is the Chief Sustainability Officer with KISCO, a Korean chemicals and inks manufacturer. He has worked with KISCO since 2015, spending a significant proportion of his time in Seoul while living in Melbourne. Dr Watkins’ role is to lead KISCO’s ESG strategy and help develop new business areas. In 2020 Dr Watkins negotiated KISCO's strategic partnership with and investment into Boron Molecular, an Australian chemical manufacturer that was a CSIRO spin-out company.
Dr Watkins is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and currently serves as a non-executive director and Chair of the Board for two Australian not-for-profit organisations: Pollinate Group and parkrun Australia.
Dr Watkins has a PhD in Chemistry from UNSW and spent four years in the UK working in two start-up companies, out of Oxford and Cambridge Universities, in the area of Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs). He subsequently spent 10 years with CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, as a research scientist and manager where he led work on developing the materials and processes to enable the production of flexible solar cells.
Members
Ms Robyn Bryant
Reappointed on 29 March 2025 for three years
Ms Robyn Bryant is the Owner/Director of Bryant Family Grazing, a family run farming operation based in Southern Queensland.
Ms Bryant graduated from the Emerald Agricultural College with a Dual Diploma in Rural Business Management and Beef Cattle production. She is also an Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) graduate.
Ms Bryant is an agricultural specialist and experienced board member. She is a skilled non-executive director, with experience in leadership, strategic planning, agriculture, and board governance.
Her previous roles include Board Director of the National Farmers’ Federation, Deputy General President of AgForce Queensland, Councillor on Maranoa Regional Council as well as roles on several community committees and boards.
Along with her husband and four children, Ms Bryant is an active member of her family business and passionate advocate for Australian agriculture.
Dr Peter K. Lee
Appointed 31 August 2023 for three years
Dr Peter K. Lee is a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, an international affairs think tank based in Seoul, Korea. He is also a non-resident fellow at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. His research focuses on Australia-Korea relations, Australian foreign and defence policy, Korean peninsula affairs, middle powers, alliances and Indo-Pacific security.
Dr Lee has also been a Korea Foundation research fellow at the University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute where he worked on the Australia-Korea people-to-people relationship across diverse fields such as migration, diaspora communities, renewable energy, agriculture, food security, media and education.
Dr Lee received his PhD in strategic studies from the Australian National University. His thesis was the first in-depth study of the Australia-Korea security relationship and was nominated for the J G Crawford prize for best ANU PhD thesis. He has a Master of International Relations and a Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honours in political science from the University of Melbourne.
Dr Pippa Dickson
Appointed 31 August 2023 for three years
Dr Pippa Dickson is one of the country’s strongest advocates for Australian art, craft and design with extensive leadership experience in organisations both nationally and internationally.
Previous positions include Director, Asialink Arts, Director of the National Association for Visual Artists (NAVA) and Co-Chair of the National Craft Initiative. Dr Dickson founded Design Island for Arts Tasmania, was Chair of Design Tasmania and was the founding CEO of the Glenorchy Art & Sculpture Park, Hobart. In 2015 she was recognised as one of the 50 most influential people in Design by the Australian Centre for Design.
Outside Australia, Dr Dickson’s achievements include an International Advisor to the Cheongju International Craft Biennale (South Korea) 2017 and 2019. Judge of the 2021 Korean International Ceramic Biennale and mentorship at the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (Hong Kong) with former CEO Michael Lynch, AO OBE. Dr Dickson has presented collaborative projects in all art forms and undertaken speaking engagements across Asia.
Professor Gordon Flake
Appointed on 27 February 2025 for three years
Professor Gordon Flake is the founding Chief Executive Officer of the Perth USAsia Centre at The University of Western Australia.
Professor Flake is one of the world’s leading authorities on strategic developments in the Indo-Pacific. Having spent twenty-five years in the US foreign policy community focused on the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia and now nine years in Australia’s Indian Ocean capital he is an expert on key strategic relationships in the broader Indo-Pacific. He has authored many scholarly and policy studies on security developments in the region, and their policy implications for the US and its regional partners.
Prior to joining the Centre, he was the Executive Director of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation, an Associate Director of the Program on Conflict Resolution at The Atlantic Council of the United States, and Director for Research and Academic Affairs at the Korea Economic Institute of America.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts (Korean) and Master of Arts (International and Area Studies) from Brigham Young University. He speaks both fluent Korean and Laotian.
Ms Julianne Lee
Appointed on 12 March 2025 for three years
Ms Julianne Lee is a business and finance consultant with over 20 years of experience in trade advocacy, small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) development, and economic diplomacy. As Vice President and former President of Voice of Korean Australian Businesses (VoKAB), she has led policy initiatives to improve SME access to Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), including presenting at Australian parliamentary hearings. She also serves as a Global Korean Business Advisor, appointed by the Overseas Korean Agency (OKA) to strengthen bilateral economic ties.
With a background in business banking at Westpac and ANZ, Ms Lee has advised businesses on international trade, investment, and market entry strategies. Beyond finance, she is a multicultural advocate and founder of The Star-Kissed Project, which promotes Australia-Korea relations through cultural storytelling. She co-authored Australia-Korea Closer Than Ever: Knowing Korea, an educational resource bridging trade, culture, and policy.
A proud member of the Korean Australian community, Ms Lee is dedicated to highlighting its role as a bridge between Australia and Korea, fostering deeper economic, cultural, and diplomatic connections. She actively collaborates with government agencies, industry bodies, cultural institutions, and diaspora communities in Australia to strengthen bilateral engagement and economic cooperation.
Mr Sung Ho Lee
Appointed on 17 March 2025 for three years
Mr Sung Ho Lee is an experienced executive search professional, currently leading Johnson Partners CFO practice, specialising in appointments across ASX Top 100 companies.
With over 18 years’ experience in executive search and recruitment leadership roles, Mr Lee has cultivated a track record spanning various industries including fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), retail, property, construction, manufacturing, technology, logistics, and financial services. His expertise extends across ASX, NZX, multinational, private equity and venture capital (PE/VC) and fintech organisations, both onshore and offshore.
Prior to joining Johnson Partners, Mr Lee held positions with a globally listed search firm in Sydney, where he spearheaded multiple divisions, overseeing their growth and diversification since 2007. He also served on the company’s Australian leadership team, contributing significantly to the strategic direction of its operations.
Mr Lee is a recognised advocate for diversity including through the several hundred placements he has made and is the Chair for the Asian Australian Leadership awards, founded in partnership with Asialink and Johnson Partners back in 2019. The awards seek to elevate Asian Australians into leadership positions across a wide range of categories.