Associate Team
Josephine Macmillan / 麦佳慧
Partnerships Associate
Josephine Macmillan has just completed a dual Bachelors of Laws and Arts at the University of Queensland. With an extended major in Art History and electives in French and Chinese, Josephine is passionate about languages and the arts and the roles they have to play in more meaningful cross-cultural engagement.
After being awarded the Westpac Bicentennial Foundation Scholarship for Asian Exchange in 2016, Josephine spent time traveling rural China and teaching English before spending a semester studying Law and Chinese at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She went on to intern with King and Wood Mallesons in Shanghai and to spend a further semester focusing on Chinese at Peking University in Beijing.
As Managing Director of the Australia-China Youth Association (ACYA) in 2017, Josephine has enjoyed working with many of the incredibly talented and driven young people that the Australia-China space attracts. This year, she is looking forward to commencing as a graduate lawyer with King and Wood Mallesons in Brisbane while contributing to further enhancing the bilateral relationship with the ACYD team.
Renae Liang
Partnerships Associate
Renae is a public policy professional with experience in both the public and private sectors. The Australia-China relationship has been a key factor throughout much of her career. She previously worked for Jemena, an energy company majority owned by China’s State Grid. She also worked in the China Policy Unit and secretariat to the Foreign Investment Review Board at the Australian Treasury. She has advised ministers and senior government officials on a range of policy, economic, trade and investment issues—including the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement.
Born in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, she has spent considerable time studying, teaching English and travelling in Greater China. In both a professional and personal capacity, she has an interest in seeing the Australia-China relationship further develop and strengthen. She takes a particular interest in potential opportunities for collaboration between Australia and Greater China on common opportunities and challenges—including on climate change and energy, regional security and education.
Renae has a Masters of International Relations from the University of Melbourne, with a particular focus on trade, international political economy and the United Nations. She has twice studied internationally on exchange—at UCL in London and Sciences-Po in Paris.
Yushan LI
Communications Associate
Yushan Li is a project manager at one of the Fortune Global 500 corporations, China State Construction Engineering Corporation. She is a very passionate professional who constantly seeks to maximize her full potential in eliminating the gap among different cultural backgrounds using her expertise.
Yushan has worked both in Australia and China, and enjoys working with a diverse network of people in a multi-cultural context. She is an active promoter of dialogues among Australia, China, US and Europe, and has been involved in different kinds of cross-cultural projects. Examples of these include an academic exchange with Hawaii University and collaboration with Finland VTT.
Yushan has extensive experience in delivering results for a variety of clients. Her team collaborates with architects, researchers and economic experts to study the practice and exploration of new urbanisation in China. In their work they identify how their company can play a vital role in urbanisation process, and based on their research, position themselves strategically to achieve this goal. Prior to entering her career in planning, she worked in an international media company in Australia as she sees media as a catalyst, an enlarger to direct public opinion.
Using her fluent bilingual skills Yushan has been able to establish strong connections overseas and convince her network abroad to find potential markets in China.
Yushan holds a Master Degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Melbourne and a Bachelor of Engineering from Beijing Forestry University. She was an ACYD delegate in 2016.
COURTNEY SCALES
Communications Associate
Courtney is a marketing specialist within the digital marketing sector, currently undertaking a Masters of Marketing at the Queensland University of Technology. She has also graduated with a Bachelor of Business Management, with an extended major in Marketing from the University of Queensland.
Focused on marketing automation, coupled with a passion for market research, Courtney has followed her passion across a diverse range of industries, from hospitality, start-up and not for profit.
Her connection with China stems from a varied range of interests including historical, culinary, and cultural, as her affinity with the Chinese culture is reflected through varied personal and professional interests throughout her career in both hospitality and marketing sectors.
She is currently employed by the Chamber of Commerce & Industry Queensland as a Marketing Specialist where she connects with varied Government and Commercial stakeholders to manage multiple sustainability and SaaS programs to the economic benefit of business across the State.
As a new addition to the 2018 AYCD team, she is enthusiastic to improve the experience of young professionals in the Aus-China space, and to user her experience at AYCD to embed in her international marketing agendas.
Nicholas Brandimarti
Communications Associate
Nicholas Brandimarti is an internationally travelled leader currently pursuing a dual Degree in a Bachelor of Commerce and International Studies majoring in Chinese Language and Marketing at Deakin University.
In the past five years Nicholas has successfully completed multiple stints living, working and studying in China. His passion for China originates from his first Chinese class in high school in 2008.
After being awarded the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs New Colombo Plan Scholarship In 2016, Nicholas spent 12 months in China studying Mandarin at Shanghai University. During his studies Nicholas interned at China Checkup an Australian consulting firm.
Passionate about Chinese digital media and cross cultural marketing Nicholas hopes to pursue an international marketing career in China after graduation.
Joining ACYD in 2018 as Social Media Associate, Nicholas is looking forward to playing a positive role in strengthening the Australia-China relationship and promoting cross cultural development between young professionals in the Aus-China space.