Our people

Professor Ian Williamson was selected from an international field of candidates to head the Asia-Pacific Social Impact Leadership Centre.  Starting February 2010, Professor Williamson will hold the centre's Helen Macpherson Smith Chair of Leadership for Social Impact. This is the first position of its kind at the University of Melbourne and one of a few only in the world.
Ian has had a longstanding personal and professional interest in the not-for-profit sector. His work in recent years with organisations such as the Koorie Business Network has given him insight into the challenges that organizations grapple with in establishing social enterprises and encouraging diversity in employment practices.

Extensive work with the business community provides him with a strong platform to broker and develop cross-sector partnerships and collaborations and as a result of his contributions to the school's executive education leadership program, he has the expertise to work across sectors with students and faculty to promote and support leadership for social impact.

Ian joined MBS in July 2006 as associate professor, and has since been active in teaching, researching and consulting on the international stage.

Liz Gillies has had over 20 years experience in a range of fields that complement working for social impact. She has held positions at multinational corporation, Hoechst Australia,
the Victorian Farmers Federation, Deakin University, the Parliament of Victoria and the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust.

Areas of expertise include public relations, industrial relations, obbying and advocacy, senior management, strategic planning, policy development and grant making and philanthropy.

Liz joined the Melbourne Business School in March 2009.

Michelle Evans is a PHD Scholar and a Research Fellow at the Asia Pacific Social Impact Leadership Centre at  Melbourne Business School.

Michelle is concentrating on research around Indigenous Leadership in the Arts and will be developing a national Indigenous Business Masterclass Series in 2010/2011.

Michelle holds a Bachelor in Communications (Theatre/Media), a Graduate Diploma in Arts Management and a Master of Creative Arts (Research).  Her thesis will concentrate on long term investment and evaluation in community cultural development – Community Cultural Development: A Policy for Social Change?

Michelle is  an internationally accredited Partnership Broker by the Overseas Development Institute/International Business Leader Forum and was the founding Head of the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development at the Victorian College of the Arts.

Michelle comes from the Hunter Valley in New South Wales. Over the past fifteen years, she has worked across the arts and cultural sector, being instrumental in the establishment of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Student Network, Ngorekah Aboriginal Theatre, 3KND and the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development.

Professor of Marketing, Jill Klein received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Michigan in 1990. During the following seven years she was a member of faculty in the Marketing Department at Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University, and spent periods as Visiting Professor at Bond University School of Business, Queensland, Australia, Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration, Finland and The Fuqua School of Business, Duke University. From 1997 through 2008 she was on the faculty at INSEAD.

Jill Klein's teaching specialties are Decision-Making, Social Competence, Marketing Management, Consumer Behavior, Advertising/Marketing Communications and Marketing Research. Her research interests are consumer boycotts, corporate social responsibility, and international marketing, including the effects of international hostility on consumer perceptions of foreign products. She has had articles published in the Journal of Marketing, Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, Management Science, the Journal of International Business Studies and the British Medical Journal.

Dr Jody Evans professional expertise and research interests include international marketing, branding and retailing. Her current projects examine a range of issues including branding and retail strategy in the museum sector, a resource-based view of retail competitive advantage and performance, drivers and impediments to international retail involvement, brand orientation in the retail sector and brand strategy in buyer-supplier relationships.

Jody has consulting and executive development experience in the retail sector and has worked with client organisations in the UK and Australia. Among the kinds of projects she leads are market research, strategic reviews and management development seminars and workshops.

Before joining MBS, Jody was Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Retailing and Marketing at Manchester Metropolitan University Business School. She has also worked at the Australian Centre for Retail Studies, where she was involved in a range of research and consulting projects for leading retailers in the Asia-Pacific region.

Kerrie Firth
Executive Assistant to Dr Ian Williamson and key point of contact for the centre.  Kerrie also provides liaison between Melbourne Business School and the national Centre for Social Impact (CSI). Kerrie was instrumental in supporting the establishment of MBS's new Asia Pacific Social Impact Leadership Centre.