03/09/2010
Executive Director
Michael G. Smith AO
Major General (Retd)
Michael (Mike) Smith is the founding Executive Director of the Asia Pacific Civil-Military Centre of Excellence, established by the Australian Government in 2008. From 2002-2008 he was CEO of Austcare, an independent non-government aid and development agency, that focuses on human security. Mike formerly served as an Army Officer in the Australian Defence Force for 34 years, retiring in 2002. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice and Governance at Griffith University and a Member of the International Advisory Board of the Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy at the Australian National University. He also lectures on international security issues at the Centre for International Security Studies at the University of Sydney, and has delivered a number of keynote addresses on peace-related issues at international forums. From 2003-2005, Mike was a member of the Executive Committee of the Australian Council for International Development.
Mike graduated with the Sword of Honour from the Royal Military College, Duntroon, and during his service held command appointments from platoon to brigade level, including service in Cambodia, East Timor, Kashmir and Papua New Guinea, where he experienced the tragedies caused by conflict and poverty, and the need for greater civil-military collaboration. His last military assignment was as Deputy Force Commander for the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), in recognition of which he was promoted to an Officer in the Order of Australia. His book Peacekeeping in East Timor: the Path to Independence (Lynne Rienner, 2003) and his chapter with Dr Moreen Dee on "East Timor" in Twenty-First-Century Peace Operations (William J. Durch (Ed), USIP, 2007) identifies the lessons for intervention, civil-military relations and peacebuilding. In 1998, he was team leader and principal author for the Australian Army's capstone strategic doctrine The Fundamentals of Land Warfare, and he is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Australian Army Journal. He has published articles on issues of national and human security, peace operations, and refugees and displacement.
Mike holds a BA in History from the University of New South Wales, an MA in International Relations from the Australian National University, and is a Fellow of the Australian College of Defence and Strategic Studies. He has a Diploma of Management and is a Member of the Corporate Directors' Association. He was educated at Sydney Boys' High School. He is married to Margaret Bain-Smith, and they have three adult sons. Mike is a Rotarian, a struggling golfer, and a keen rugby spectator, who enjoys reading, music and the theatre.
Deputy Director
Dr Jim Rolfe
Jim Rolfe is the Deputy Director of the APCMCOE on secondment from the New Zealand Ministry of Defence where he was Principal Adviser, Strategic Policy.
Previously Dr Rolfe has been Associate Professor of International Relations at the Asia-Pacific Centre for Security Studies in Hawaii, Deputy Director of the New Zealand Centre for Strategic Studies and Associate Director of the Master of International Relations programme at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He has continuing academic relationships with universities in Australia and New Zealand as a teacher and post-graduate supervisor.
Earlier still, following a career in the New Zealand Army, Rolfe was a policy adviser in the New Zealand Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. In this role he dealt with a wide range of both traditional and non-traditional security issues. Rolfe has published some 100 books and journal articles on issues of New Zealand defence, security in the Asia-Pacific region and non-traditional concepts of security.
Chief of Staff
Lily Mulholland
Lily Mulholland is the Chief of Staff at the Asia Pacific Civil-Military Centre of Excellence. Her role is to support the Executive Director in promoting and growing the Centre, assuring proper governance and the efficient use of allocated resources.
Lily has held management and advisory positions in the Department of Defence, the Australian Agency for International Development, the Australian Taxation Office and Raytheon Australia. She also served as an officer in the Australian Army, with deployments to East Timor in 1999 and Bougainville in 2000. She remains an active member of the Army Reserve.
In addition to her extensive experience in corporate management, Lily holds several qualifications: Master of Strategic Affairs (ANU), Graduate Diploma in Public Relations (RMIT) and Bachelor of Arts (Honours) (Monash). Lily is also undertaking a Master of Philosophy in Business on a part-time basis at the UNSW@ADFA.
Business Manager
Trevor Haines
Trevor joined the team in mid January 09 after thirteen years with Emergency Management Australia (EMA). Prior to being employed with EMA Trevor was with Northern Territory Police, Fire and Emergency Service. While with EMA Trevor has worked across the organisation including education and training at the EMA Institute at Mt Macedon, emergency planning, exercise management and capacity building nationally and internationally to name a few. During his career he has undertaken several secondments which include capability development in New Zealand, capacity building in Papua New Guinea, policy development in DFAT and counter terrorism capability development in the Protective Service Coordination Centre (PSCC) at Attorney Generals Department. Recently Trevor finished a twelve month secondment on the Northern Territory Emergency Response with FAHCSIA as a Government Business Manager and was based on the remote indigenous community of Areyonga in the Central Australian Western Desert. Trevor has a long association with the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and has been involved in the development of international capabilities and policy documents for the coordination of humanitarian aid during disasters. Trevor is also a current member of the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination Team (UNDAC) and has been involved in several UN missions where he received the Humanitarian Overseas Service Medal (HOSM).
Military Affairs Adviser
Colonel Neil David Greet
Colonel Neil Greet joined the Army as a Staff Cadet in January 1982 and graduated into the Corps of Royal Australian Engineers in December 1985. He completed his Bachelor of Civil Engineering degree in 1986, followed by junior officer regimental appointments in the 2/3nd Field Engineer Regiment, and 22 Construction Squadron. He then completed a suite of staff appointments as a Captain in the Accommodation and Works Service, 19th Chief Engineer Works, and the Directorate of Engineers. After an appointment as an Operations Instructor at the School of Military Engineering he was promoted to Major in 1995.
As a Major, he completed a staff assignment in Materiel Division of Army Headquarters in the field of Integrated Logistics Support for Combat Net Radio Projects, and commanded the 21st Construction Squadron in 1999 and 2000. During his command tenure the 21st Construction Squadron deployed as part of INTERFET, completed the ATSIC Army Community Assistance Project Milikapati and deployed on Exercise Crocodile 99.
At the end of 2000 he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, and posted to the Australian Defence Force Warfare Centre as the Staff Officer Simulation and War Gaming. In 2003, 6th Engineer Support Regiment was formed and Colonel Greet was appointed as the first Commanding Officer. 6th Engineer Support Regiment commands 17th and 21st Construction Squadrons and 1st Topographic Survey Squadron, and provided an engineer command and control node for the Deployable Joint Force Headquarters.
After Unit command, Colonel Greet was posted to Capability Development Group, Defence Headquarters, Canberra. After a short stint as Military Adviser to the Chief of Capability Development Group, Colonel Greet was promoted to his current rank in 2005 and fulfilled several appointments within the Capability Development Group until Aug 2008.
In 2006 Colonel Greet deployed to Iraq as the Deputy Chief Engineer in Multi-National Corps Iraq. On return he conceived and convened the 2007 'Reconstruction During Conflict - A Whole of Government Approach' Seminar sponsored by the ADF and Engineers Australia. This work saw him appointed as one of the founding members of the Asia Pacific civil-military centre of excellence in Aug of 2008.
Subsequent to his civil engineering education Colonel Greet has a Graduate Diploma of Computing, a Masters of Science, and a Masters of Defence Studies. He attended the Royal Military College of Science, United Kingdom in 1995, and the Australian Army Command and Staff College in 1998. His intellectual pursuits are now focussed on improving civil military integration.
Colonel Neil Greet is married to Maureen and has two teenage sons, Joshua and Benjamin. Two teenage sons consume their parents' spare time with a ravenous appetite. However, there remains a small amount of spare time to indulge household projects and reading.
Liaison Officer to ADF Peacekeeping Centre
Rebecca Shrimpton
Rebecca Shrimpton is the Liaison Officer from Asia Pacific Civil-Military Centre of Excellence (the Centre) to the ADF Warfare Centre at RAAF Williamtown. In this role, a close working relationship between the two Centres is cultivated and opportunities for collaboration are identified and facilitated. Prior to taking up the Liaison Officer position Rebecca worked in International Policy Division where she was tasked with implementing the Government's policy to establish the Centre.
Prior to her work on the Centre, Rebecca was Director Counter-Terrorism and Regional Interests in International Policy Division. She spent several years in different positions within the Strategy Executive prior to this appointment, working in both International Policy and Strategic Policy Divisions. Rebecca has also worked with Defence in Victoria at the RAAF Base in Point Cook, and with Defence Support in Melbourne. In 2003 Rebecca deployed as a civilian peace monitor on the Peace Monitoring Group in Bougainville.
In 2001 she was on the Defence Graduate Development Program. Rebecca holds a Bachelor of Arts (Police Studies) and a Bachelor of Letters (Strategic Studies) from Deakin University and is currently finalising the requirements for the Masters of Strategic Studies at the ANU. She lives in Nelson Bay with her partner Dean and two sons, Seamus and Mikey.
Executive Officer
Moreen Dee
Moreen came across to the Centre in October on temporary transfer from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. She works directly to the Executive Director as his Executive Officer. Moreen served as a diplomatic historian with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as an author on the department's Australia in the World: the foreign affairs and trade files series and an editor on the Documents on Australian Foreign Policy series. She also served as a Protocol Officer. In previous lives she has been an officer in the Australian Army and a school teacher. She holds a Bachelors degree in Asian Studies, a Masters in Defence Studies and a Masters and PhD in International Relations, and has written and published on peacekeeping and Australian foreign and defence policy making in Southeast Asia and Indochina and with the United Kingdom, the United States and Japan.
Non-Government Advisor
Michele Lipner
As the NGO Advisor to the APCMCOE, Michele Lipner is seconded from the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID). Michele has almost twenty years experience working in international development, having been posted in senior management positions for the United Nations and NGOs in primarily post conflict environments. Michele brings to the Centre experience in disaster and humanitarian response, peacekeeping missions and development programming. She has, for example served in post-tsunami Aceh Province as the head of UN OCHA, Afghanistan as the head of the regional office for UNAMA (Afghanistan) and Country Director for NGOs in Kosovo, Republic of Georgia and Armenia. Michele has a strong background in civil-military engagement from both a practical and strategic level, actively working to develop field based best practices through programs and policies. More recently, and before joining the Centre Michele co-authored draft guidelines for UN DPKO on civil-military coordination in UN Peacekeeping Operations.
Michele has a BA degree in history, a Master's degree in Psychology, and a PhD in Sociology from universities in the US.
Training, Education and Doctrine
Nigel Phair
Nigel joined the Centre in December 2008 on secondment from the Australian Federal Police. Nigel has been a Police Officer for over 19 years and has been deployed in numerous roles both in Australia and internationally. Most recently he spent over four years at the Australian High Tech Crime Centre, where he led investigations and represented the Centre in numerous intergovernmental and external forums. He has extensive experience working with a variety of industry groups, including banking & finance and the telecommunications sector.
He is a Senior Lecturer within the Centre for Transnational Crime Prevention, University of Wollongong and also at Charles Sturt University. As well as an undergraduate degree, he holds Masters Degrees in Law and Public Policy. He is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and has published an acclaimed book on the international impact of cyber crime.
Governance and Rule of Law
James Bellicanta
Jamey commenced at the Centre in April 2009 on secondment from the Australian Federal Police (AFP). Jamey has been a member of the AFP for 24 years during which time he has performed duties within ACT Community Policing, National Investigations, Training and Aviation Security.
Jamey has served with the United Nations Missions in Cyprus and Timor Leste.
Governance and Rule of Law
Peter Thomson
Peter Thomson is a secondee from the Australian Government's Attorney-General's Department with a background as a director in the areas with responsibilities for human rights, anti-corruption and transnational crime. In 1997 he was the Secretary to the Review of the Attorney-General's Legal Practice.
From July 1997 to June 2004 he was a Member of the Australian Refugee Review Tribunal where he determined applications for review of refugee decisions. He has undertaken AusAID-funded consultancies as the Long Term Human Rights Adviser within the Indonesian Department of Justice and Human Rights. He completed a secondment with the Senate Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee and Senate Legal and Constitutional References Committee, and was a researcher with York University in Canada. Early in his career he worked as a Legal Officer for the Regional Office of UNHCR. He was an Associate to the Aboriginal Land Commissioner and Justice of the Supreme Court in the Northern Territory.
He holds a Bachelor of Law and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of New South Wales and received a Master of Public Law from the Australian National University.
Foreign Policy Adviser
Martin Quinn
Martin Quinn was Australia's Ambassador to Afghanistan (2008-09). He is a career foreign service officer, seconded to the APCMCOE from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). Over a twenty-year career, he has also served as Counsellor in the Australian Embassy Seoul, First Secretary in Jakarta and Third Secretary in Bangkok. In Australia, Martin has worked in a wide range of areas in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Career highlights include membership of the DFAT team that prepared Australia's first White Paper on Foreign and Trade Policy; and a role in the negotiation and implementation of Australia's Free Trade Agreement with the United States. He is a graduate of Sydney University.
Emergency Management Adviser
Kim Fitzgerald
Kim's career has been spent in the Department of Defence and Attorney-General's Department. His earlier career was focused on Human Resource Management before teaching himself the basics of programming and moving into the world of systems administration.
In 1993, Kim was selected for the Department's Middle Managers Development Program, a thirteen month intense program involving challenging work rotations, course work, academic study and ADF familiarisation tours (including a personal highlight of flying off the back of HMAS NEWCASTLE on her maiden voyage). Following the program, Kim was the Course Director for a number of Defence Management Seminars, a Defence Cooperation Program-sponsored activity for middle-ranking Defence officials from South East Asia and the South Pacific region. He considers these seminars a highlight of his career.
In 2001, Kim joined Emergency Management Australia where he worked in the fields of information/knowledge management, grants administration, event management and served on the after-hours Duty Manager roster as disasters are no respecters of business hours. As an ex-member of the ACT Bushfire service (seeing active service during the 2003 Canberra fires), Kim has a special interest in the use of volunteers in emergency management. Kim hopes that during his secondment to the centre, he will be able to contribute to the important work that the centre undertakes, particularly in relation to training and education activities. He has a strong commitment to any activities that bolster Australia's regional engagement.
Kim is married to Krystyna with 2 adult step-children. He enjoys bushwalking, Geocaching, current events. He is terrified of heights and if you are unlucky enough, he will show you his parachuting video.
