About

President

 Delwar Akbar

  Associate Professor Delwar Akbar is a regional economists and a research leader in supply and value chain area. He has been working with rural and regional industries and businesses to improve their productivity and sustainability. His research during the last decade has focused predominantly on rural and regional economics, value chain analysis, property and health economics, economic impact assessment and regional development. Along with other researchers, he has received significant levels of funding support (about 7.5 million dollar) have been received through the Category 1-4 grants. He has integrated economic models with supply chain, services and planning models. Recently, he has been developing and testing collaborative business models that could boaster rural economic dynamics and international trade. Over his academic career, he has been involved with more than 60 research and consultancy projects, and published over 140 refereed papers and project reports.

Immediate Past President

 Rolf Gerritsen

  Professor Rolf Gerritsen is currently a Professorial Research Fellow at Charles Darwin University. 

Rolf has taught at various universities, the longest period being a decade at ANU in the Graduate Program in Public Policy. He has also worked as Director of the Australian Centre for Regional and Local Government Studies, as a Ministerial staffer and ran his own research consultancy for a number of years. Between 2002 and 2006 he was Director Social/Economic Policy in the Chief Minister’s Department in Darwin. Rolf’s principal research interest is regional and northern development, with a focus on disadvantaged, remote and Indigenous areas. His secondary research area is government policy and service delivery. He is currently concentrating upon Indigenous peoples’ role in natural resource management and services.

Vice President Australia

 Yogi Vidyattama

Dr Yogi Vidyattama is an Associate Professor at the University of Canberra.

Yogi has been with University of Canberra starting with National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (NATSEM) since 2008 after having previously spent three years as a research assistant and tutor at the Research School of Pacific and Asia Studies and Crawford School, ANU (2005-2008) and five years at the Institute of Economic and Social Research, University of Indonesia (1999-2004). His main research interests are spatial impact of government policy; housing affordability; spatial distribution of inequality and disadvantage; and analysis of wealth and superannuation.

Vice President New Zealand

Michael Cameron

Michael Cameron is a Professor in Economics and Research Fellow in Te Ngira – Institute for Population Research at the University of Waikato. His current research interests include population, health and development issues (including the social impacts of alcohol outlet density, the measurement of population ageing, migration, health applications of non-market valuation and discrete choice modelling, and cost-effectiveness analysis of public health interventions), population modelling and stochastic modelling, financial literacy and economics education.

Secretary

 Azizur Rahman

Dr Azizur Rahman is an Associate Professor in Applied Statistics and the leader of Statistics and Data Mining Research Group at the Charles Sturt University (CSU).

Azizur’s doctoral research was supervised by Prof Ann Harding (National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling, NATSEM) to develop alternative methods in microsimulation modelling technologies. These are very useful tools for socioeconomic policy analysis and evaluation. His book published in 2016 has contributed significantly to the field of small area estimation and microsimulation modelling. His research interests encompass issues in simple to multi-facet analyses in various fields ranging from the statistical sciences to the regional and environmental studies. He obtained the School of Computing and Mathematics Research Excellence Award 2018 at CSU.

Treasurer

 Greg Jones

  Dr Greg Jones is a Lecturer in Accounting in the School of Commerce of the University of Southern Queensland (Toowoomba campus).

Greg recently completed his PhD examining investment in CDOs by local government in NSW. His main research interests are local government, policy-making, financial reporting, asset management and auditing.                 

Public Officer

 Tony Sorensen

  Professor Tony Sorensen is Adjunct Professor in the School of Behavioural, Cognitive and Social Sciences at the University of New England.

Tony has been involved in regional science over a very long career and is widely respected for his contributions to the discipline. As a futurist, he is interested in strategies to facilitate regional adaptation to as yet unknown business opportunities in a fast moving and globalised world of commerce and technology. Another research strand focuses on urban planning theory and the economics of Australia's residential property markets.

Council Member

 Khorshed Alam

Associate Professor Khorshed Alam is Associate Professor in Economics in the School of Commerce of the University of Southern Queensland (Toowoomba campus).

Khorshed's research interests are applied economic and policy analysis, health economics, agricultural, environmental and resource economics, technology adoption, digital economy and productivity, and regional economic development. He has undertaken a number of funded research projects, including 'Advancing women in rural enterprises (WiRE) through entrepreneurship', Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, Australian Government, 2017-18.

Council Member

 Niyi Alimi

Omoniyi (Niyi) Alimi is an economist at the University of Waikato with interests in applied economic analysis focusing on labour and development economics. His research has focused on the role of socio-demographic factors on income inequality in New Zealand urban areas. Niyi was previously a consultant in the Wellington practice of Ernst & Young (EY). 

Council Member

 Kim Houghton

Dr Kim Houghton is the Chief Economist at Regional Australia Institute.

Kim oversees the research, education and policy portfolios to ensure the Institute’s work has practical application and supports a better policy environment and more vibrant regional economies. Kim played a leading role in recent research on housing, population mobility in regional Australia, analysis of regional labour markets, and the impact of COVID-19 on regional economies.

Council Member

Paul McPhee

Dr Paul McPhee is currently a Lecturer in Economics at Federation University. He has a PhD from the University of Wollongong.

Paul's professional experience includes: developing and analysing economic indicators, survey design and analysis within the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS); policy advice and economic analysis within the Federal treasury; serving on Federal Government Economic Forecasting Committees;, and various teaching and research positions at the universities of Queensland and Wollongong. Prior appointments include modelling various demand and supply induced policy simulations which facilitate the networking and information sharing of regional small to medium sized firms and exporters within New South Wales. 

Council Member

Bruce Wilson

Bruce Wilson is Director of the European Union Centre of Excellence at RMIT. In this role, he provides insights to and leads research and debate on EU-Australian relations, encouraging mobility for staff and students, and for building partnerships between Australian universities and organisations and their European counterparts. This Centre has developed Smart Specialisation in Australia as a resource for policy-makers. For three years, he led RMIT’s participation in Regional Research Connections, a policy-oriented initiative of the Regional Australia Institute. He also led the Australian participation in the EU’s World Cities initiative in 2016-18 and is Coordinator of the Australasian participation in the EU’s International Urban and Regional Cooperation project, 2021-23.