Board of Directors

Chairman of the Board

Sir Frank Lowy AC founded the Lowy Institute for International Policy in 2003 and has served as its Chairman since then.

He co-founded global shopping centre company Westfield in 1960 and served as its Executive Chairman for 50 years and then as Non-Executive Chairman between 2011 and 2018 when the company was acquired by Unibail-Rodamco.

He is also the Chairman of the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), an independent academic institute in Tel Aviv that studies key issues relating to Israel’s national security and Middle East affairs.

He has received numerous honours and citations for his business and philanthropic activities including being made a Knight Bachelor in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in 2017.

Deputy Chairman of the Board

Mr Steven Lowy AM has served on the Board of the Lowy Institute for International Policy since it was established in 2003.

Steven is a Principal of LFG, the private investment business and family office of the Lowy Family Group. He is the President of the Hakoah Club and Chairman World Board of Trustees Keren Hayesod-UIA.

He was previously an Executive Director of global shopping centre company Westfield Corporation, serving as co-Chief Executive Officer for many years prior to the sale of Westfield in June 2018. He was also a Non-Executive Director of Scentre Group, which owns and manages Westfield shopping centres in Australia and New Zealand.

He has served as Chairman of Football Federation Australia Limited, President of the Board of Trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Chairman of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, and Presiding Officer of the NSW Police Force Associate Degree in Policing Practice Board of Management. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) from the University of New South Wales.

Board Director

Ms Jillian Broadbent AC is a Director of Macquarie Group Limited and a Board Member of the Lowy Institute for International Policy. She has served on the Boards of the Reserve Bank of Australia, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation as inaugural Chair, Swiss Re Life & Health Australia Limited, Woolworths Limited, ASX Limited, Special Broadcasting Corporation (SBS), Qantas Airways Limited, Westfield Property Trusts, Woodside Petroleum Limited and Coca-Cola Amatil Limited.

She was Chancellor of the University of Wollongong and maintains an active interest in the arts. She is currently a director of the Sydney Dance Company.

In 2019, she was made a Companion of the Order of Australia for her contribution to corporate, financial, clean energy and cultural organisations, to higher education and to women in business.

Board Director

Mr David Gonski AC is Chancellor of the University of New South Wales and Chairman of the UNSW Foundation Ltd.

He is President of the Art Gallery of NSW Trust, Non-Executive Chairman of Barrenjoey Capital Partners Group Holdings Pty Limited, Chairman of Sydney Airport and Chairman of Levande Living. He is also a Board Member of the Lowy Institute for International Policy, a Non-Executive Member of LeapFrog Investment’s Global Leadership Council, a Patron of the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation and Raise Foundation and a Founding Panel Member of Adara Partners.

He was previously Chairman of the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd and Chair of the Review to Achieve Educational Excellence in Australian Schools for the Commonwealth Government of Australia. He was also a member of the Takeovers Panel, the ASIC External Advisory Panel and Director of Singapore Airlines Limited, the Westfield Group and Singapore Telecommunications Limited, Chairman of Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd, the Australian Securities Exchange Ltd, the Sydney Theatre Company, the Guardians of the Future Fund, the Australia Council for the Arts, the Board of Trustees of Sydney Grammar School and Investec Bank (Australia) Ltd.

Board Director

Ms Joanna Hewitt AO’s career has spanned senior public and private sector roles in the areas of foreign policy, trade and agriculture as well as corporate and public sector boards in Australia and internationally.

Her senior Australian Government appointments have included: Secretary of the Australian Department of Agriculture (2004–07); Deputy Secretary in the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, including as Australia’s Lead WTO Negotiator (2003–04); Ambassador in Brussels (2000–03); and APEC Ambassador (1999–2000).

She has held other senior roles in the OECD Secretariat in Paris and in the Australian Government. She is currently a Member of the Murray Darling Basin Authority and is Australia’s representative on the APEC Vision Group. She is a Board Member of the Lowy Institute for International Policy and her private sector board appointments (between 2007 and 2015) include an Australian and three US corporations.

She has consulted for international organisations and served on a UN expert panel on world food security. Ms Hewitt has a Bachelor of Economics (First Class Honours) from the University of Western Australia (1971) and an MSc (Econ) from the London School of Economics (1976).

Board Director

Air Chief Marshal Sir Angus Houston AK, AFC (Ret’d) was awarded the Knight of the Order of Australia in January 2015 for extraordinary and pre-eminent achievement and merit in service to Australia, through distinguished service in the Australian Defence Force, continued commitment to serve the nation in leadership roles, particularly the national responses to the MH370 and MH17 disasters, and in a variety of roles in the community. 

Sir Angus is Chancellor for the University of the Sunshine Coast and Chair of the Defence South Australia Advisory Board, the Victorian Police Corporate Advisory Group, the University of NSW Canberra Advisory Board, the Canberra Symphony Orchestra, and the Supashock Advanced Suspension Advisory Committee. 

He is a Board Member of Virgin Australia, Lowy Institute for International Policy, the Sunshine Coast Mind and Neuroscience Thompson Institute, the Australian Cancer Research Foundation, the Anzac Centenary Public Fund Board, GreaterGood Canberra, and the Victorian Police Executive Command. Sir Angus is also a visiting fellow of the Australian National University National Security College and the South Australian Special Envoy for International Trade and Investment. 

He is also the Ambassador/Patron of numerous charitable organisations. 

In July 2014, Sir Angus was appointed as the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy to lead Australia’s efforts to help recover, identify and repatriate Australians killed in the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 disaster. Sir Angus also led the Joint Agency Coordination Centre coordinating the Australian Government’s support for the search into missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in 2014. 

In 2012, Sir Angus led the Expert Panel on Asylum Seekers. 

Sir Angus was Chair of the Anzac Centenary Advisory Board from July 2011 until March 2014. The Board provided strategic advice to the Australian Government in relation to the planning and implementation of the Anzac Centenary 2014–2018. 

In July 2011, Sir Angus retired as Chief of the Australian Defence Force after 41 years of service in the military. In the same year, he was named the Australian Father of the Year and in 2012, the ACT Australian of the Year. 

Sir Angus was awarded the Degree of Doctor of the University of South Australia in August 2017, Degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa from ANU in December 2016, Degree of Doctor of the University, honoris causa from UNSW in November 2015, and Degree of Doctor of the University from Griffith University in December 2013. 

Sir Angus is married to Liz and they have three sons and three grandchildren. 

Board Director

Ambassador Martin S. Indyk AM is Distinguished Fellow and Director of executive education at the Council on Foreign Relations. Previously, he was the John C. Whitehead Distinguished Fellow in International Diplomacy in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution. From February 2015 to March 2018, he served as Executive Vice President of Brookings. Ambassador Indyk served as the US special envoy for the Israeli–Palestinian negotiations from July 2013 to June 2014. Prior to this, he was Vice President and Director of the Foreign Policy program and a Senior Fellow and the founding Director of the Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings.

He served as US Ambassador to Israel from 1995 to 1997 and again from 2000 to 2001. He also served as Special Assistant to President Bill Clinton and Senior Director for Near East and South Asian affairs at the National Security Council (1993–95) and as Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern affairs in the US Department of State (1997–2000).

Before entering government, he was founding Executive Director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy for eight years. He serves on the boards of the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Australia, the Institute for National Security Studies in Israel, and the Aspen Institute’s Middle East Investment Initiative. Ambassador Indyk also serves as a member of the advisory boards of the Israel Democracy Institute and America Abroad Media.

Ambassador Indyk is the author of Master of the Game: Henry Kissinger and the Art of Middle East Diplomacy (A.A. Knopf, 2021) and Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East (Simon and Schuster, 2009). He is co-author of Bending History: Barack Obama’s Foreign Policy with Michael O’Hanlon and Kenneth Lieberthal (Brookings Institution Press, 2012).

He received a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Sydney and a doctorate in international relations from the Australian National University.

Board Director

Mr David Lowy AM is a Principal of LFG, the private investment business and family office of the Lowy Family Group.

Prior to the founding of LFG, he served in various positions for the Westfield Group from 1977 to 2000 including as Executive Director and Managing Director. He retired in 2000 as an executive and served as the Group’s Non-Executive Deputy Chairman until 2011.

He is the Founder and President of Temora Aviation Museum, a Board Member of the Lowy Institute for International Policy, a Director of the Lowy Medical Research Institute Limited and Director of the Institute for National Security Studies. David is also a pilot and musician.

Board Director

Mr Mark Ryan played a key role in the establishment of the Lowy Institute for International Policy and has served on its Board since 2002.

In 2018, he established the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas and served as its inaugural Executive Director.

He is an adviser to the Lowy Family Group and a number of major public companies and institutions, and is an Ambassador of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute.

He is a former journalist and was senior adviser to Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating. For 25 years, he was a senior executive at Westfield Corporation.

Board Director

Mr Glenn Stevens AC worked at the highest levels of the Reserve Bank of Australia for 20 years, most recently as Governor between 2006 and 2016.

Mr Stevens has also made key contributions to a number of Australian and international boards and committees, including as a Board Member of the Lowy Institute for International Policy, Chair of the Australian Council of Financial Regulators between 2006 and 2016, as a member of the Financial Stability Board, and on a range of G20 committees.

Mr Stevens is also an advisor for Ellerston Capital’s Global Macro Fund, a Non-Executive Director at Macquarie Group, a member of NWQ’s investment committee, and a Director at the Anika Foundation. He has a Bachelor of Economics (First Class Honours) from the University of Sydney and a Master’s in Economics from Western University in Ontario.

Board Director

The Hon. Penny Wensley AC was Governor of Queensland from 2008 to 2014. Her appointment followed a distinguished career as a diplomat (1968–2008), representing Australia in a wide range of bilateral and multilateral postings overseas and senior policy positions in Canberra. After early postings to France, Mexico and New Zealand, she served successively as Consul General, Hong Kong; Ambassador to the United Nations, Geneva; Ambassador for the Environment; Ambassador to the UN, New York; High Commissioner to India; and Ambassador to France.

In Canberra, she headed the East Asia Branch, International Organisations and Legal Division, North Asia Division, and Europe Division. She has a Bachelor of Arts (First Class Honours) from the University of Queensland (UQ) and Honorary Doctorates from UQ, James Cook and Griffith universities, and the Queensland University of Technology.

She is a Board Member of the Lowy Institute for International Policy, a Fellow of the Australian Institute of International Affairs (FAIIA) and an Honorary Fellow of the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand (HFEANZ). She is currently National Soils Advocate, Chairman of the Council of the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), and Chairman of the Reef 2050 Advisory Committee, advising the Australian and Queensland governments on implementation of the Long-Term Sustainability Plan for the Great Barrier Reef.