It is with excitement and humility that I step into my new role as Chairwoman of the Board for the German-Australian Chamber of Industry and Commerce of Industry and Commerce.
I thank my predecessor, Dr Jens Goennemann, for your diligent and firm stewardship over the years. Your impetus and approach to exploring the strategic overlap between German and Australian markets of the future have enabled the AHK Australien to set the solid strategic pillars on which it was able to rebuild what a Chamber of Industry and Commerce stands for and how it operates.
Welcome, our new board members Rafael Koenig, Rosanne Jessop, and Hanno Blankenstein, and welcome, dear Gabi Rose as AHK Australien’s new Executive Director, and thank you, dear outgoing members of the Board, Simone Whetton and Dr Wolfgang Babeck.
To our dear Executive Director Christoph von Spesshardt, who will be leaving us soon, and on behalf of the entire Board, I wish to express our sincerest gratitude for your dedication and hard work for the AHK Australien, and indeed our members. You have led and rebuilt our team with enthusiasm and a lot of ‘Herzblut’, and your exceptional results are proof that you have hit the right nerve. As a result, we will be able to carry a completely new chamber model into a successful future.
In my new role for the Chamber, I very much look forward to working closely with our Vice-Chair of the Board and longstanding Board member, Rolf Drohn.
Together with our entire team and our valued members, I look forward to working towards achieving our vision of being a trusted partner, enabler and accelerator of sustainable business relations between Australia and Germany. I am excited to help guide our amazing team in our mission to creating value for our members, customers and government stakeholders by increasing bilateral business opportunities and developing growth initiatives in the strategic overlap of both countries.
Rebecca Lee
Chairwoman of the Board
