Melbourne Asia Game Changers

Daizy is passionate about young people shaping the future, social entrepreneurship and representation. She hosts a podcast called The Daizy Project, which explores living a purposeful life through meaningful conversations with bold entrepreneurs, leaders and change-makers. She is an avid speaker, sharing her learnings at BMW, Pausefest and on a panel discussion alongside Ela Gandhi (Human Rights activist and granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi). She has worked and volunteered on social impact projects in Tanzania, in Thailand as an Australian Youth Ambassador for Development assisting in legal aid for refugees and travelled to the Himalayas in India to resolve her quarter-life crisis through meditation. She's currently on a mission to squeeze in writing a memoir and building a social movement to empower South Asian women through Bold Punjab and Australian South Asian Centre.

On the "professional" front at the age of 21 she served on the board of directors for Australia’s largest Community Bank company (NSX: CSH) and at 22 was appointed to lead Deakin University’s entrepreneurship programs for over 60,000 students. The initiative, SPARK Deakin has since invested in 87 founders and engaged 10,000 people in their community events. Daizy has also developed the Australian Digital Job Accelerator, which increases women’s confidence and ability to generate an income through freelancing.

Ly Tran is a Professor in the School of Education at Deakin University and an Australian Research Council Future Fellow. She worked at Hue University, Vietnam, prior to coming to Australia. She is a Visiting Professor at Phu Xuan University, Vietnam; Toyo University, Japan and Hitotsubashi University, Japan. Her research focuses on international education, international students, the education-migration nexus, Australian student mobility to the Indo-Pacific, and internationalisation of higher education in East Asia.

Spanning higher education, VET and secondary education, Ly’s research has been featured in multiple languages and by more than 100 media outlets in Australia and Asia, including the ABC, SBS, the Australian Financial Review, China Daily, East Asia Forum and VietNamNet. She has written well-read commentaries on international education in The Australian, BSB, The Conversation, University World News and Campus Review.

Leah Jing McIntosh is the founding editor of Liminal, an anti-racist literary project based in Naarm. In 2022, she co-edited Against Disappearance, an award-winning collection of essays on memory and the archive ...

Philipp Ivanov is the Chief Executive Officer of Asia Society Australia, a position he has held since 2015. He is leading Asia Society Australia through a period of growth and transformation. He is a co-leader of the Asia Taskforce by the Business Council of Australia and Asia Society Australia to advance Australian business engagement with Asia.

He is a board member of Haymarket HQ – Australia’s first co-working space and accelerator focussed on Asian markets. He is a member of the Advisory Council of the Australian committee of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC). He is the founder of Disruptive Asia – a thought-leadership project examining the impact of Asia's rise on Australia, and China Executive Briefing, a program examining China’s economic policies and their impact on Australian business. His commentary and analysis have appeared in The Australian, ABC, Bloomberg News, CNBC, The Australian Financial Review, Melbourne Asia Review and ChinaFile.

Philipp is a China specialist with extensive experience in policy, education and research and is committed to building an Asia-literate Australia. Previously, he was a policy officer and manager of the Australia-China Council (a predecessor to the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations) at the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He was one of the principal authors of the Australia in the Asian Century White Paper – China Country Strategy, Australia’s first public, whole-of-nation strategy for the bilateral relationship with China. Previously, Philipp was Acting Director and Deputy Director of the Research Institute for Asia and the Pacific at the University of Sydney, advised the University of Sydney on their China strategy and managed La Trobe University's partnerships in the Gulf States, Vietnam and Thailand.