Our people

Prof. Ottavio Quirico

University of New England

Professor Quirico is a Professor of Law at the University of New England at the Visiting Fellow of the Australian National University Centre for European Studies. Inter alia, Ottavio has been Marie Curie Fellow at Université Panthéon-Assas and Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute. He has lectured in universities worldwide, practised in Europe and acted as a consultant to the United Nations. His research covers international relations, with a focus on economic issues. He has published extensively in the field of EU and international law.

Mr Cornelis Keijzer

DG Trade, European Commission

Cornelis Keijzer works for the European Commission where he has mostly dealt with trade issues and negotiations. He negotiated sectoral agreements on IT products and pharmaceuticals in WTO and the trade in goods part of the EU’s FTA with Japan, and was involved in many other trade negotiations (Mexico, Tunisia, West-Africa). Cornelis was posted in Tokyo and Geneva. He was the Head of Trade at the EU Delegation in Canberra (2018-2023) with the rank of Minister Counsellor and continues to be involved in the negotiations for an FTA between the EU and Australia. Before working for the European Commission he worked for the Dutch Central Bank (including on the introduction of the euro) and the Ministry of Economics. He studied political science and economics in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Paris and Strasbourg.

Dr. Gorana Grgic

ETH Zürich and University of Sydney

Dr Gorana Grgic is a Senior Researcher with the Swiss and Euro-Atlantic Security team at the ETH Zürich’s Center for Security Studies (CSS), a non-resident Senior Lecturer at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, and an Expert Associate with the National Security College of the Australian National University. In recent years, Gorana was a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney, a Research Fellow in Grand Strategy at the Hertie School’s Centre for International Security (2022-2023), Partners Across the Globe Research Fellow at the NATO Defense College (2021), Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Center for European Studies (2018-2019), and Visiting Lecturer in US Foreign Policy at the University of Western Australia.

Gorana’s research interests include US foreign policy, transatlantic relations, conflict resolution and democratisation. Her research projects and teaching activities have been funded by the EU, NATO and the Australian Department of Defence. She strongly believes in translating scholarly work to help improve public debate and decision making in all aspects of domestic politics and international affairs. She has consulted government and corporate entities in Australia, United States and Europe. Gorana has also been a regular political analyst for the ABC News Australia and has had work published in a number of leading Australian and international media outlets and policy institutes. Prior to her academic career, Gorana worked for United Nations Development Programme in Croatia and Special Broadcasting Service in Australia.