People

Mark Leenders is a Professor of Marketing and Innovation and Deputy Head Research and Innovation at the Graduate School of Business & Law, RMIT University. He has been a visiting scholar at leading American universities, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of British Columbia, and University of Pennsylvania.

Mark enjoys high levels of impact and influence in the sub-field of Business and Human Rights known as Innovation Strategy, Creativity, and Business Performance. A key impact area is around the global transformation towards more circular business models that reduce waste and create positive economic and social returns. In 2012, I was appointed as a member of the agenda-setting committee of a multiyear grant scheme of the Dutch Science Foundation (NWO) to stimulate the design and implementation of creative solutions for ‘big problems in society. He is constantly engaging with policymakers and companies in a range of industries to find ways to support ‘green’ innovation and create returns for the company and society. For example, he have helped wineries change their channel structure to be able to get a better return on green investments and construction companies source 'used' furniture rather than 'new' furniture to support the triple bottom line.  He is highly cited and received the ‘new hot paper’ award by Thomson Reuters' ScienceWatch in 2008 as being the co-author of one of the most cited new articles in Business and Economics combined. I am also a frequent contributor to business strategy and public policy debates and have appeared in news items and opinion articles in outlets such as the Washington Post, ABC news, RTL news, Canadian National Radio, De Morgen, Daily Mail, NRC, Knowledge@wharton, RSM insight, Screen Daily, and corporate magazines (e.g., Philips, Royal Shell, and Ericsson).

Dr Anne Kallies is a Senior Lecturer of law at RMIT University. Anne’s work explores how regulation of corporatised and often privatised businesses in the energy sector has to be adapted to provide for a transition to more sustainable production and use of energy. Anne’s research draws on her study and work experience in Australia and Germany. Anne has presented her work in industry and community forums, and published in academic journals. Anne is a regular commentator in The Conversation on renewable energy law and policy. Anne has previously worked for the German Federal Environmental Agency and has been an administrator and researcher in the Centre for Resources, Energy and Environmental Law at Melbourne Law School.

Elizabeth Shi is an expert in the legal protection of vulnerable employees and the extent to which novel approaches in law-making achieve the purpose of enhancing employment security. Elizabeth has published her research in high ranking academic law journals.  Elizabeth has also conducted research in multidisciplinary teams and published in industrial relations journals. Elizabeth has previously practiced as a solicitor at a commercial law firm and as an in-house legal counsel at a medical technology company. Elizabeth has also previously worked as a management consultant at a top tier consulting firm.

Bronwyn Naylor is Professor of Law in the Graduate School of Business and Law. She researches in two areas relevant to business and human rights. The first is how places of detention (which are run by private and public agencies) can be required to protect the human rights of detainees, particularly under the UN Treaty, OPCAT. The second is aimed at encouraging private and public players to focus on recruitment of staff not only on risk (through criminal record checking) but also protecting and supporting people with a criminal past in fulfilling employment. One cohort of particular importance is Aboriginal communities. 

Bronwyn has published extensively and coordinated public symposia bringing together government, civil society and private sector providers, on the regulation and monitoring of prisons and other places of detention, and on the UN Treaty OPCAT (the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture), recently ratified by Australia. In recognition of her standing in the field she was appointed a member of the Advisory Group to the Victorian Ombudsman in her 2019 OPCAT-focussed inquiry, and a member of the OPCAT Advisory Group to the Commonwealth Ombudsman, the federal NPM Coordinator. She is also a Board member ofVACRO, a highly-regarded NGO in the field.

She has been particularly influential in publishing on, and advocating for, reforms to laws on criminal record checking in employment decisions by business, government and NGOs. In 2016 she was invited to work on this issue with the Aboriginal organisation Woor-Dungin and her collaborative work with Woor-Dungin was  the subject of an influential NITV/SBS program on criminal records and the Stolen Generation. The Victorian government, in response, made a formal apology, and legislation was passed in 2018 expunging these records of children taken into care up to the late 1980s. The project received the national Indigenous Award 2018 from Philanthropy Australia.

Bronwyn worked as a solicitor, and at the Law Reform Commission of Victoria, and then took up an academic position at Monash in the Law Faculty, before moving to RMIT University in 2016.

Leanne introduces novel approaches to stakeholder communication in the field of accounting. Prior to joining RMIT, Leanne lectured on a range of accounting topics at the University of Tasmania, where Leanne completed a PhD in corporate environmental reporting. Leanne’s industry experience includes her role as a tax consultant, and various board positions in the environmental not-for-profit sector.

Marta Poblett is an Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Business and Law. In the field of business and human rights, Marta’s research focuses on crowdsourcing methods and digital technologies that are applicable to human rights monitoring. She has undertaken research at the law, technology, and governance intersection for fifteen years in ways that advance the human rights performance of technology businesses. She connects the technological, legal and ethical aspects involved in applying Artificial Intelligence, mobile technologies, and crowdsourcing methods to the management of conflicts and disasters.

Marta actively engages with the media to disseminate her research, writing for The Conversation (as of July 2019, my posts have more than 30,000 readers) and Eureka Street. My research has been featured in the World Economic Forum, The Australian (Australia), and La Vanguardia and Diari Ara (Spain). She has also been an expert commentator on politics on ABC TV News, ABC Radio, The Wire at 2SER, the Student Youth Network (Australia), and Sputnik Radio (Scotland).

Natalya Turkina is the Vice-Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the Graduate School of Business and Law. Natalya has 10+ years of experience in the Research and Education, Business and Government sectors in Europe and Australia. She is passionate about research and teaching in the areas of Social Entrepreneurship, Stakeholder Engagement, Cross-Sector Partnerships, Corporate Social and Environmental Sustainability and Responsibility. In her research, Natalya critically looks at how organisations and individuals understand and practice sustainability, responsibility and business ethics. Her research projects are international and comparative in their nature and has involved national contexts of such countries as Australia, Indonesia, Mongolia, Russia and Botswana.

Professor Forsyth is a Law Professor in the Graduate School of Business & Law, RMIT University and Vice-President of the Australian Labour Law Association, and Vice-President (Independent) of the Australian Institute of Employment Rights. He is an international expert on the future of unions and the emergence of new forms of collective worker representation, in the context of the gig economy and other new business models (e.g. supply chains, labour hire, franchising). In 2015-16 he chaired the Victorian Government's independent inquiry into Labour Hire and Insecure Work. Over a 12-month period, he investigated the problems associated with worker exploitation in the labour hire sector and the proliferation of various forms of non-permanent work, through public hearings and stakeholder meetings held across the state. The State Government has implemented my recommendations through the Labour Hire Licensing Act 2018 (passed by the Victorian Parliament in June 2018).  In October 2018, he won the RMIT University Award for Research Impact (Enterprise); and the RMIT College of Business Awards for Research Impact, Research Excellence - Journal Publication by an Academic, and Best Journal Publication (by School) by an Academic.

Anthony is a frequent contributor to public policy debate on industrial relations and workplace regulation in Australia, through opinion pieces and commentary in The Conversation, Australian Financial Review, The Guardian, ABC Online, ABC/RMIT Fact Check, ABC News 24, ABC Radio and The Australian.

Ingo is an internationally award-winning researcher and educator, passionate about the essentiality and existentiality of human experiences. As Professor at RMIT’s Graduate School of Business and Law, Ingo engages with the community to initiate, lead, and facilitate innovative change across people and systems, supported by his research, teaching, and practice at the nexus of business and design.

For several years now, Ingo has worked with various institutions that promote ethical, responsible and/or sustainable business practices for the betterment of human conditions. This includes his collaboration with StrEAT to help overcome homeless, by creating a new business model that finances the training and reintegration if disadvantaged young people back into the workforce. In 2019 he won the first government tender (as lead-investigator) on using human-cantered design to reform the Children’s Court of Victoria. The aim is to redesign the service model of and related to the court to improve human experiences and outcomes in this environment. Ingo purposefully and continuously uses the combination of research and education for the benefit of various stakeholders and institutions, while grounding this approach in a human-centred design lens.

Currently Ingo is responsible for the course Design Thinking for Business, a course which he developed for RMIT’s Executive MBA program, focusing on collaboration with industry partners to design context-relevant strategy solutions together with executive students. Ingo’s teaching interests further include Strategic Design, Strategy and Service Management. Together with the teaching team, he enjoys discovering research-driven insights that can be integrated into course content and shared by way of exciting learning experiences.

Ingo has also collaborated with governmental, industry and non-profit organisations (previous projects included sectors such as health, legal, banking, property/construction, automotive, and various NGOs).

Lisanne is currently a law lecturer and a PhD candidate at RMIT University. Lisanne’s teaching areas include commercial law, advanced contract law and jurisprudence.

Qualifications and Awards

Lisanne undertook previous studies at Vrije University in Amsterdam and Uppsala University. Vanessa’s topics of research have ranged from:

• medical negligence
• family law and International Private Law
• European Law
• Human rights law

Her current PhD thesis at RMIT focuses on false confessions as a contributing factor towards wrongful convictions.

Sara is currently a PhD candidate, research assistant on the topic of energy law and economics and a sessional lecturer. Sara currently tutors the subject “Managing International Business Responsibly”, an undergraduate subject in the Bachelor of Business at RMIT. 

Sara has previous professional experience as a communication consultant and in a financial role. Sara undertook a Master studies at Copenhagen Business School.

Research Interests

Sara’s research focuses on gender in global production networks, with emphasis on women workers in the garment industry. By bringing together feminist theories with business perspectives and research methods, Sara seeks ways to expand the understanding of gender in women’s lives within business operations.

Olivia Dean is a PhD Scholarship Student at the Graduate School of Business and Law. Olivia has previous experience in the finance industry. Olivia teaches Company Law (Melbourne and Jakarta), International Commercial Law, Law of Investments and Financial Markets, Corporate Governance and Regulation and Business and Corporations Law.

Research Interests

Olivia’s research focuses on financial entities, banks, flow of money and business relating to responsible lending, investment and financial transactions. Olivia’s research explores the impact of the Modern Slavery Act to the Australian Finance Sector, focusing on reporting obligations and human rights due diligence.

Esmira is an experienced legal academic with 7 years of teaching Australian company law and financial regulations. Esmira is passionate about creating sustainable business strategies. Esmira has taught and is currently coordinating the subject “Law of investments in Financial Markets” at RMIT Vietnam. Esmira held various senior administration roles within the NSW government from 2001 to 2004. Esmira currently holds the role of corporate responsibility consultant at a technical infrastructure firm in Vietnam.

Qualifications and Awards

Esmira completed a Master of Law at the University of Edinburgh,  receiving a Distinction on her dissertation, which covered the topic: “Do Australian laws governing duties of directors permit directors to meet expectations of Corporate Social Responsibility? Is there a need to change the current laws? A comparative analysis from two jurisdictions – Australia and The United Kingdom”. 

Apurva is a qualified overseas lawyer (India), a PhD candidate and HDR Student Representative for Graduate School of Business and Law at RMIT University, Melbourne. Apurva is pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Corporate Law and Human Rights.  Apurva taught at the Australian Catholic University and Deakin University and her teaching areas include Business law, Media and Communications law, Contracts, Torts and Civil Procedure. In Apurva’s  role of a legal editor at Sai Global Pty Ltd , she gained experience in processing digital, editorial, legislative and compliance-related data following qualitative and quantitative methodologies.

Research Interests

Before pursuing her PhD in Corporate Law and Human Rights, Apurva extensively researched on public service broadcasting policies and legislation underpinning the public broadcasting sector in the UK and Australia. Apurva’s areas of interests are:

• Corporate Purpose     
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Corporate Accountability
• Benefit Corporations
• Broadcasting Legislation and Policy
• Public Broadcasting
• Freedom of speech and expression
• Human Rights            
• Gender Equality

Awards and Qualification

• Master of Arts  (Research), La Trobe University, 2014
• Master of Laws, Univercity College London (UCL), 2011
• Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws, Bharati Vidyapeeth, 2008
• Diploma in Intellectual Property Rights, Asian School of Cyber Laws, 2008
• Diploma in International Business Law & Corporate Laws, Symbiosis International Educational Centre, 2007

Key Publications

• Sharma, A.K. (2018). Balanced Co-Existence Of De Jure And De Facto Independence In Public Broadcasting Sector In: Journal of Creative Industries and Cultural Studies, 1, 26-49.

For more information about Apurva see: https://au.linkedin.com/in/apurvaksharma

Yingyi is a PhD student at the Graduate School of Business and Law whose research focus is cross-border surrogacy and human rights. Her PhD explores how regulating international surrogacy can effectively reduce human rights violations and argues that Australia should increase regulation and set accountability for surrogacy facilitators in order to protect surrogate-born children and surrogate mothers. She successfully undertook ‘New Issues of Cross-border Surrogacy’—a major project (2017-2019), looking at the Chinese experience of cross-border surrogacy arrangements, and co-authored the book “A Study of Private International Law Issue in Cross-border Surrogacy”, an in-depth research of the international and national law governing surrogacy along with recommendations for legal reform.

Before pursuing her PhD at RMIT, she completed Master of Law at Deakin University, receiving a High Distinction on her dissertation: A Step Forward for International Surrogacy: Pre-birth Recognition with Background Check. Yingyi has previously practiced as a paralegal at an international commercial law firm in China and as a legal assistant at Wentworth Group International Pty Ltd in Australia.

Research Interests

Human Rights, Cross-border Surrogacy, Cross-border Insolvency Practice, Feminist legal theory,

Qualifications and Awards

• Fellowship to study at RMIT University
• Fellowship to study at Deakin University
• Lawyer's qualification certificate, China

Key Publications

Book:

Yuan Quan and Yingyi Luo, A Study of Private International Law Issue in Cross-border Surrogacy (2019), Law Press China.

Journal:

Yingyi Luo, ‘Land Title Registration in the United States’ (2016) 5 Legality Vision.

Yuan Quan and Yingyi Luo, ‘Legal Conflicts and Its Resolution Paths in Cross-Border Surrogacy: Experience from The Hague Adoption Convention’ (2019) 30 Chinese Review of International Law.

Profile

www.linkedin.com/in/yingyi-luo-78a537140