Board
Anastasia Pavlovic
Director
Anastasia is passionate about the intersection between technology, sustainability, and Australia-Indonesia relations. She currently works at Google, working closely with Australia & New Zealand leadership team to shape regulatory strategy as a Country & Strategy Operations Lead.
A 2024 Women Leading Tech Rising Star finalist and New Colombo Plan alumni, Anastasia strives to champion marginalised communities. As a daughter of Indonesian & Serbian migrants raised in Western Sydney, she is committed to leveraging her unique perspective to drive social impact and technological innovation.
Iona Main
Director
Iona has been a member of CAUSINDY’s Executive Board since 2021 and was a conference delegate in 2016 (Bali) and 2019 (Darwin). She is a management consultant at Bain & Company based in New York, and loves staying connected and pursuing her passion for Australia-Indonesia relations via CAUSINDY.
Prior to Bain, Iona served as the political adviser at the Australian Consulate-General in New York and as a foreign policy adviser at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet in Canberra. She holds a Master of Public Affairs from Princeton University and a combined Bachelor of Commerce/Bachelor of Arts from the University of Sydney.
Rio Afifuddin
Director
Rio is a development practitioner with a Master of International Development Practice in the Governance and Democratisation stream from Monash University. He has worked in the development sphere since 2009, and has experience working on several donor-funded programs across Eastern Indonesia.
Since early 2019, Rio has worked at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Jakarta. He oversees and monitors the implementation of two Australian development assistance programs on decentralised governance and knowledge to policy.
Rio hopes that the youth of Indonesia and Australia can continuously collaborate, foster friendships, and contribute to better and stronger bilateral relations. He also values volunteering as a means to give back to the community. In his spare time, he enjoys blogging, backpacking and cooking.
David Scholefield
Director
David is an Engagement Partner for the College of Law, Arts and Social Sciences at Murdoch University. He is passionate about the transformative impact of tertiary education, and the enablement of students and their institutions to enrich society.
Indonesia, and the pursuit of engagement within the region has been a driving force in many aspects of his life since a high school exchange to Surabaya in 2010. Since then, David has lived and worked in Indonesia, represented Australia in the 35th Australia-Indonesia Youth Exchange Program and is Deputy Member of the National Reference Group for ACICIS (Australian Consortium for 'In-Country' Indonesian Studies) David holds a Bachelor of Arts in Asian Studies, Indonesian and Anthropology and speaks Bahasa Indonesia.
Rahmat Hidayat HM
Director
Rahmat Mato is a youth leader and development practitioner from Indonesia with over a decade of experience across Asia and beyond, and an alumnus of AIMEP and CAUSINDY, reflecting his strong commitment to Australia–Indonesia relations. He is the Co-Founder and Director of The Floating School Indonesia, empowering coastal youth through education, leadership, and climate action, and was awarded a scholarship to join a leadership program at UNSW in 2022. He is also an active member of the YSEALI Network and has contributed to regional initiatives with the Asia-Europe Foundation. Currently serving as Partnership & Communication Manager at Blue Forests.
Kirby Taylor
Director
Kirby is currently a Policy Adviser for Australian parliamentarian and Special Envoy for Indian Ocean Affairs – the Hon Tim Watts MP. Her current work focus is leading on a Parliamentary inquiry into building Australia's Asia Capability including through Asian language learning at schools and universities. Previously Kirby has worked on the Australia-Indonesia bilateral relationship in both Canberra and Jakarta at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Kirby has a keen interest in education and people-to-people links, drawing on her significant experience working for the federal Department of Education, and managing international scholarship programs and student cohorts at Swinburne University and at the ANU – including for flagship programs such as Australia Awards and the New Colombo Plan.
Kirby has a long affiliation with Indonesia having studied Bahasa Indonesia since secondary school. She was an active volunteer with AIYA for many years and has previously completed internships in Jakarta at both the Australian Embassy and the United Nations Information Centre. Kirby also completed a semester of study at Universitas Gadjah Mada in 2015 as part of the ACICIS Flexible Language Immersion Program, supported by a Victorian Government Hamer Scholarship.