Richard Watson is currently Acting CEO of Trade and Investment Queensland. He joined Trade and Investment Queensland in 2017 as General Manager, Queensland Operations and for the past two years has been Deputy CEO.
Richard has more than 20 years’ commercial and government experience in senior executive roles in sports management and events. His career has spanned consulting, business development, financial control and management, and stakeholder engagement and management. Richard joined the public sector in mid-2005 and since then has had wide experience in Queensland Government operations, including regional services and sport and recreation services at all levels. Prior to joining TIQ, he was Deputy Director-General – Sport and Recreation Services with the Department of National Parks, Sport and Racing. Richard holds a Bachelor of Financial Administration from the University of New England.

Yann leads Monitor Deloitte, Deloitte’s Strategy Practice, in Queensland and Deloitte’s Innovation and Venture Strategy nationally.

He has over 22 years’ experience in corporate strategy, innovation and business design. Yann has worked for a range of clients in consumer & retail, financial services, public and not for profit sectors.

With a background in corporate finance and human-centred design, he brings a blend of analytical, creative and facilitative skills for strategy design and delivery.

Born in France, graduated in France (Toulouse Graduate Business School) and in the UK (Strathclyde university MBA), Yann worked for PA Consulting Group’s Strategy & Marketing Practice in London and New York in 1999-2009. In 2009, he decided to move with his family to Queensland to change lifestyle, joining Deloitte. Yann has become a proud Queenslander in the process!

Outside work, Yann is an amateur astronomer, TEDx Advocate and he and his wife are kept busy by their two children.

Brian works in the capital works and infrastructure industry, focusing on strategy implementation, policy-setting, and process improvement initiatives. He has held general management and advisory roles at Queensland’s three integrated LNG projects, and consulted on projects across Australia and Europe, where he built a track record of delivery internationally. In doing so, he has led projects ranging from multi $100m infrastructure subprojects, $1m change projects in cross-border organisations, to tactical consulting assignments.
Brian is currently a director at Euroz Group, an advisory company, and sits on the Brisbane Lord Mayor’s Multicultural Business Roundtable. He also lectures at MBA, post-graduate and under-graduate levels in Operations Design and in Business Process Management (BPM) at the University of Queensland’s business school, where he runs these courses. Since 2015, Brian formally mentors early and scale-stage company leaders, and is Federal President of the French-Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. His past external roles include lead MIS lecturer on ESCP Europe’s MBA in London, and Chairman of the Lansdowne Club in Queensland. Having grown up in a musical family, Brian is a supporter of the classical arts, and is keen to see ever-greater linkages between excellent art companies across international borders, and between the arts and the commercial sector.
Brian has been awarded a Master of Arts and Moderated Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Trinity College Dublin, a European Master in Management from EAP Oxford, a Diplom Kaufman from the Berlin Senate, and a Diplôme des Grandes Ecoles de Commerce from ESCP Europe in Paris.
Time working and studying internationally has helped Brian build a working knowledge of French, German, Spanish and Italian, alongside his native Irish (Gaelic) and English, and, having set down roots in Brisbane, is steadily improving his ‘Stralian.

Alain Etchegaray has been working as a facilitator, recruiter, auditor and manager of B2B service companies mainly on projects in the Pacific region with a focus on HR & quality management. After the United States, Japan, France and Germany, he spent 12 years in New Caledonia before moving to Australia 15 years ago.

Alain is Director of Pacific People Solutions, which designs and delivers solutions to identify talents, grow people and improve organization performance in Australia, Indonesia and the Pacific Islands.

Pacific People Solutions focus on all verticals within Mining, Energy, Utilities and Manufacturing sectors.

Alain is also General Manager of Sci Qual, an Australian ISO third-party certification body for Quality, Environment, Health and Food safety.

He loves interacting with different cultures and finding bridges between people from diverse backgrounds to achieve common goals.

Alain is involved with FACCI in the Pacific Islands and Small Business subcommittees.

Alain holds a Master’s degree in International Business from a French business school ISG Paris, postgraduates studies in HR at U.C.L.A. Los Angeles and in Organisational Development at Macquarie University Sydney.

Julie has the combined experience of an Australian solicitor, and a French juriste d’affaires. She is currently a Consulting Principal at Keypoint Law Pty Limited and has extensive experience working with both Australian and foreign corporations. She provides advice on investments and operations in Australia and across the Pacific region. Her specific focus is on commercial and corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, energy and resource projects, and construction and tourism projects.

Julie is also actively involved in the Australian, French and Pacific Island business communities. She is:

(a) A current Federal Director, and Federal and Queensland Chapter Secretary of FACCI.
(b) A member of the executive committee of the Australia Pacific Islands Business Council.
(c) A member of the executive committee of the Australia Papua New Guinea Business Council.

Through her involvement with FACCI, she uncovered a real need from French-speaking individuals to French companies based in Brisbane for a French-Australian school offering a bilingual program following both French and Australian school curricula. After intense work with the assistance of a team of volunteers over several years, the French-Australian bilingual program finally opened at Tingalpa State School in 2015 and has now one class for each year from Prep to Year 6.\

Julie has been travelling around the Oceania region including Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands since 1992. She loves traveling for pleasure or business and discovering new countries and cultures and meeting new people. She is in a de-facto relationship with a successful entrepreneur and the proud mother and stepmother of 4 children.