Chris Owen is a partner of Norton Rose Fulbright, based in their Perth office. He’s a litigator and Chair of the firm’s commercial ESG group in Australia. He is also the partner in charge of the firm’s Responsible Business and Pro bono work in Australia.

Prior to relocating to Australia, Chris was a litigation partner and ESG lead at an international law firm in London.

Chris has 20 years’ experience advising clients on contentious and non-contentious ESG matters. As well as helping clients involved in disputes, he also advises clients in their ESG adaptation journey and dispute minimisation.





Chris is dual qualified in Australia and England and regularly advises on ESG matters with a cross-border element.

Jordan Newnham is Executive Director, Corporate Affairs, Brand and Policy at CyberCX. Jordan previously served as an adviser in Federal Parliament in policy areas of innovation, technology and the future of work. Prior to this, Jordan worked with the eSafety Commissioner, providing strategic communications and public policy advice across a range of complex regulatory issues in cyber safety and technology. Jordan also serves as a board director for the Australian Information Security Association, Australia’s peak body for cyber and IT security professionals.

Rebecca “Bec” Shrimpton is the Australia Country Director at The Asia Group. In this capacity, Bec is tasked with expanding TAG’s industry-leading Australia practice to help global and Australian corporations develop business strategies to unlock opportunities and overcome market access challenges. Based in Melbourne, Bec brings deep expertise on defense, foreign relations, trade, and investment to support clients across Australia’s most dynamic sectors and the broader Indo-Pacific.

Bec is a recognized expert on terrorism, insurgency, cyber, space policy, missile defense, nuclear and strategic deterrence, and advanced dual-use technologies within national security. Prior to joining TAG, Bec served as Director of Defense Strategy and National Security at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), and convened the inaugural in-person Sydney Dialogue in 2023 – Australia’s premier policy summit focused on critical, emerging, cyber, and space technologies.

Bec brings over 25 years of government experience, including senior positions at the Australian Department of Defense, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade). At Austrade Bec led Australian trade and investment engagements and priorities for the defence, space and infrastructure sectors globally. Bec served as Counsellor for Defense Strategic Policy at the Australian Embassy in Washington, D.C. from 2015 to 2017 and later as Senior Adviser for Major Powers to the Australian Foreign Minister from 2019 to 2020 where she provided high-level policy advice on Australia’s relationships with key partners, including the United States, China, Five Eyes nations, and on emerging technologies, cyber and space.

A distinguished alumna and Fellow of the Australian War College, Bec completed the 2013 Defense and Strategic Studies Course. She holds a Master of Strategic Studies with Honors from the Australian National University and a Master of Strategic Studies from Deakin University.

Richard Iron is President of AIIA Victoria. He was educated at the University of Cambridge in the UK. He served for 37 years in the British Army, largely spent on operations in Northern Ireland, the Sultanate of Oman, the Falkland Islands, the Balkans and Iraq.

He led a UK/US planning team in Kuwait for the 2003 invasion of Iraq and conducted the British Army’s subsequent analysis of the Iraq War. In addition, he was an expert military witness in the Sierra Leone War Crimes trials, where he worked with ex-members of various guerrilla groups.

He was the Chief Mentor to the Iraqi commander in southern Iraq, planning and implementing the 2008 operation to free Basra from Iranian-backed Shi’a militias. Later, he was Defence Fellow at the University of Oxford and worked for the UK’s Chief of Defence Staff on developing the UK’s capacity to think and work strategically.

After leaving the Army in late 2011, he led the operation to provide security to the remaining US presence in Iraq. As a consultant he wrote and delivered strategic exercises for Royal College of Defence Studies in London and the Omani National Defence College in Muscat. He was also a visiting fellow at the University of Oxford Changing Character of War programme.

He was Chief Operating Officer/CEO of Equilibrium-Global, an international strategic consultancy based in London. Major projects included advising the Kingdom of Bahrain on how to survive in the post-hydrocarbon age and working with the King of Jordan to roll back radical Islam in the Horn of Africa.

He moved to Melbourne in late 2015 to be with his wife, now a judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria. He continues to write and lecture widely on strategy, the Middle East and counterinsurgency. His current research topic is how wars end. He was lead editor of British Generals in Blair’s Wars and is writing a history of the Sierra Leone war from an African perspective. He was elected President of AIIA Victoria in October 2020.