Join us for an evening with Austrade.
Speaker David Lawson, assisted by two colleagues, will cover different aspects of the Australia-Japan trade and investment relationship, and outline Austrade's focus for the next financial year.
Austrade works to assist both Australian exporters to expand to overseas markets, and potential foreign investors to identify and take up investment opportunities in Australia. Austrade also provides assistance for international students and school groups under the Study Australia banner.
Speaker bios
David Lawson, Assistant General Manager, Trade (Agri/Food/Consumer)
David has been coming and going from Japan since a Rotary Exchange in the 80s. After studying Japanese and Economics at ANU he started a business in Japan in his 20s and imported and built the first Australian house in Japan in 1992. The Austrade Japan team helped David find Japanese customers who imported nearly 50 houses which were built from Kumamoto in the South to Miyagi in the North.
David transitioned out of his business and joined Austrade in 1997 for the role of Trade Commissioner and Consul in the Sendai office. Since then he has also had that role in Sapporo, has been based in the Austrade office in the Tokyo Embassy on long term and short term postings including straight after the Tsunami in 2011. (The houses he built near Sendai all survived the earthquake!)
His most recent role for Austrade in Japan was as Consul-General and Senior Trade Commissioner in Osaka including in the first year of COVID.
David will be joined by other staff:
Rika Sasaki, Senior Adviser, Asia Desk – Investment, Investment and Sectors Division of Austrade. Rika has been with Austrade since 1992, first in Tokyo and latterly in Sydney, and through her career she has gained special expertise in promoting Australia's life sciences capability.
Iori Forsyth, Study Australia Partnership Manager (Senior Advisor), International Education Trade Division. Iori manages a national educational partnership initiative, promoting Australia as a destination of choice for international education, in partnership with the state and territory government study bodies.
The presentation will be followed by a networking reception.
The event is hosted at the offices of corporate member KPMG at Barangaroo.
Registrations are now open. Sign up online and pay either by Paypal (link from registration) or direct to our bank account.
