A message from new Asialink Group CEO Martine Letts
By Martine Letts
Group CEO, Asialink
I am delighted to have commenced my role as Group CEO at Asialink this week.
I am very much looking forward to working closely with our committed Council, Executive Team and Staff and our partners in the region, sharing insights, building capabilities, and fostering the connections needed to enhance shared growth for Australia with Asia.
2022 is shaping up to be a hugely challenging year for the world. In the shadow of a global pandemic, conflict in the Northern Hemisphere has caused yet more disruption and danger with implications far beyond the immediate conflict zone.
Australia has significant global interests and responsibilities and our international engagement, especially in the Indo-Pacific region, is more critical than ever. We have some extraordinary opportunities in Asia which continues to be the growth engine of the world, even as our region becomes more complex and contested. As a proud, University of Melbourne based national institution Asialink has a key role to play.
My vision is to further Asialink’s status as the leading, sustainable and uniquely Australian centre for engagement with Asia, building Asian capability in our community through powerful partnerships, and being a trusted source of policy influence and connections in Australia and in the Indo-Pacific.
My thanks to my predecessor Penny Burtt for her leadership over the last 3 years, and for advancing her vision of “One Asialink” working collaboratively across its four pillars.
My particular thanks to Founding CEO Jenny McGregor for her extraordinary commitment to Asialink since its inception, and her great service to us by returning as interim CEO over the last nine months. Her leadership and advice to me as the incoming CEO has been invaluable. She has left an enduring legacy for Asialink, for Australia’s engagement with our region, for Australia and for the University. We are thankful and delighted that Jenny will continue to support us in enlarging Asialink’s network of engaged supporters.