Board of Directors

Jason Hayes is the leader of PwC’s Asia Pacific Japan Practice (ex Japan). In Australia he is supported by a team of 25 Japanese professionals situated across Australia covering the firm’s Deals, Assurance, Taxation and Consulting service offerings.  

Jason is a Partner and has more than 30 years of international experience providing assurance and advisory services to companies in a wide variety of industry sectors. He has advised Japanese companies on IFRS, JSOX requirements, foreign listing requirements and he has extensive experience with financial due diligence and financial investigations in Australia and Japan.

Jason is a regular commentator in the media and presenter at forums on Japanese trade and investment in Australia including seminars organized by PwC. Jason has spent 8 years on assignment with PwC in Japan and he is an active member of the AJBCC.

Murray McLean chaired the (then) Foundation for Australia-Japan Studies (now AJIF) from its establishment in 2014 to 2024. He served as the Chair of the Australia Japan Foundation from 2012-2020 and was previously a Member of the Board of the Australia Japan Business Cooperation Committee. He was a Vice Chancellor’s Professorial fellow at Monash University from 2012-2015 and a visiting Fellow at the Lowy Institute of International Policy from 2014-2016. He is also Chairman of his family company Dunmore McLean Pty Ltd.

Prior to his retirement from Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) in 2012, Mr McLean held senior positions in the Department including Deputy Secretary. Much of his career was spent in the formulation of Australian policy towards Asia, with a particular focus on China, Japan and North Korea. A fluent Chinese speaker, he was posted to Australia’s Embassy in Beijing in 1973, serving there twice and in Shanghai as Consul General from 1987-1992.  In Canberra he was the Head of East Asia Branch and North Asia Division in DFAT. From 2002-2004, serving as a special ministerial envoy on North Korean nuclear matters, he visited North Korea on several occasions. In late 2004, he was posted as Australia’s Ambassador to Japan where he remained for almost seven years until August 2011. In Japan he was heavily engaged in advocating for a Free Trade Agreement with Japan and in building security cooperation between the two countries. He led Australia’s response to the events of March 11 2011 and following days, including the huge Tohoku earthquake and devastating tsunami and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster.

 Mr McLean was appointed an Officer in the Order of Australia (AO) in the Australia Day 2013 Honours list and in November 2014, Mr McLean was honoured by the Emperor of Japan with the appointment to the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun.

Richard Andrews has been the CEO of the Australia Japan Business Co-operation Committee (AJBCC) since March 2021, overseeing a broadening of the organisation’s focus to encompass more activities in the rapidly growing area of bilateral innovation and technological collaboration, alongside its traditional key interest in the area of resources and energy. Previously, as an Australian diplomat for over 30 years, he had senior level postings in the Australian Embassy from 1996-99 and 2008-2012; was responsible for Australia’s stakeholder consultation arrangements during Australia’s year of hosting the G20 Summit in 2014, in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet; and was the Australian Ambassador to Ireland from 2016-2020. 

Professor Jenny Corbett was the inaugural Rio Tinto Australia-Japan Collaboration Program, Professorial Fellow (2018-2021), hosted by the School of Engineering at the University of Tokyo.

Professor Corbett has been an academic and researcher of the Japanese economy in Australia, at the Australian National University (ANU), and in the UK, at the University of Oxford. She was appointed as a Project Professor at Tokyo College from April to July, 2021.

She has consulted for the Asian Development Bank, the OECD, the World Bank, the European Commission and the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia, on a range of macro-economic and financial issues relating to Japan and the Asian region. Jenny has held executive leadership positions at the Australian National University including Distinguished Professor of Economics, Director of the ANU Japan Institute, Head of the Arndt-Corden Department of Economics, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research and Research Training), Executive Director of the Australia-Japan Research Centre and Associate Dean (Research) in the College of Asia and the Pacific. She has also been a non-executive director in the not-for-profit sector. In 2014 Jenny was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon for services to the Australia-Japan relationship.