The Board
BOARD MEMBERS 2025-26
Peter Hadfield [President]:
Peter makes feature programmes for BBC radio, as well as reporting news for Canadian Broadcasting (CBC) from Australia and East Asia. He has been a journalist for 35 years, covering events from Burma to North Korea for the Sunday Times, US News and World Report, the Sunday Telegraph, the South China Morning Post, USA Today, the Guardian and New Scientist magazine. He was also a regular feature writer for Britain’s Sunday Times Magazine and Observer Magazine. He is the author of “Sixty Seconds that Will Change the World,” (Simon and Schuster 1991) translated into five other languages. In the early 90s he moved into radio and TV, reporting for the BBC, CNN, ABC (USA), NPR, Deutschewelle and CBC.
Barbara Barkhausen [Vice President]:
Barbara represents a number of newspapers in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Luxembourg as their Asia-Pacific foreign correspondent. Her articles have been published widely by well-known papers like “Die Welt”, “Tagesspiegel”, “Rheinische Post”, “Die Presse” or “Luxemburger Tageblatt” , Barbara also works as a TV and radio producer for German and Australian media outlets like SBS Radio for example. She has published several books about Australia covering immigration, the country’s history, culture and politics, wildlife and tourism. Before immigrating to Australia Barbara worked for several German TV and production companies. Barbara has a Master in Communication, English Literature and Art History from the Ludwig-Maximilian-University in Munich and has also spent some time at UCLA in Los Angeles during her studies.
Liz Lacerda [Treasurer]:
Based in Australia since 2011, Liz Lacerda has been working as a Foreign Correspondent for the major news organisations in Brazil, including Terra Networks – where she worked for five years – Folha de São Paulo and O Globo newspapers, IstoÉ magazine, Globo TV and Record TV, among others. She has also worked from Brazil as a Foreign Correspondent for Channel 7 Australia. In Sydney, Liz was also a Casual Producer for SBS Radio Portuguese. With a Bachelor in Communications, a Post-Degree in Video & Television in Spain and a Masters in Media Arts and Production at the University of Technology – Sydney (UTS), she has two decades of experience in broadcast, print, radio and online news, current affairs and documentaries.
Laurence Arthur [Secretary]:
Laurence Arthur works for the Swiss National radio and other French speaking Swiss print media, such as Tribune de Genève/24 Heures and Ats which is the Swiss equivalent of AFP. Occasionally, she broadcasts for Radio Canada. Laurence is Swiss, born in Geneva, where she did Political Science and Arts before being hired as a junior journalist to undertake the official journalist school in Lausanne. She worked there full time, in the daily newspaper 24 heures in the economy section. Then, she decided to move to Melbourne and, here, she is enjoying the local coffee culture. However, she is not convinced yet about the quality
of local cheese, not to mention chocolate.
Raj Suri [Executive Board Member]:
Raj is the Australian representative of the Indian TVW News. Professional photographer, digital media producer and presenter. Raj Suri works across media, film, Australian TV, fashion, talent, international education and lifestyle. A content producer for over 15 years. Raj has co produced 2 feature films and is the former judge/panelist of Australian SBS TV series Bollywood Star, which was aired nationally in Australia in 2012. Currently (2023-2024) has been commissioned to work on documenting “First Generation Australian in Inner West Sydney” – a series of photographs, videos and e book supported by Inner West Council. Works on Australian Indian diversity youth mentoring. Raj is the online editor, digital-web management of FCA website and social media and events. Producer and presenter of FCA Members Talk video podcast.
Dr Marie Geissler [Executive Board Member]:
Dr Marie is a cultural historian with a background in journalism, fine arts, science, education, strategic communication and literature. She her most recent publication is Dreaming the Land. Aboriginal Art from Remote Australia, 2022, Thames and Hudson. She is currently an Honorary Fellow at the University of Wollongong.
Gonzalo Aguirregomezcorta [Executive Board Member]:
Gonzalo is a Spanish Journalist based in Sydney, Australia since 2019. He is APAC Foreign Correspondent for the TV station Cuatro. He also collaborates with Telecinco, newspapers El Mundo and ABC, travel magazine, El Viajero, and website Artículo 14. He is producer at SBS Radio Spanish and media consultant for the Spanish cultural institution, Instituto Cervantes Sydney-Melbourne. Before moving to Australia, Gonzalo spent 8 years in Los Angeles working for ESPN, one year each in NYC and Miami, working as an editor + reporter for El Mundo. From 2007-2010 he worked as a writer at Plural Entertainment, a TV production company based in Madrid. He started his career at the local newspaper from south of Spain, Diario de Jerez.
Claudio Paroli [Executive Board Member]:
Claudio Paroli subscribes to that famous line by Italian journalist Luigi Barzini Jr “being a journalist is always better than working”. He was 16 when he started “not working” on his high school monthly magazine “Augustus”, in Rome and, several decades later, he’s yet to stop.
“Better than working especially when you’re a TV journo”, he says, “as you get to play with images and sound as well as with words”. He was at SBS TV News as a reporter on day one (when the multicultural broadcaster was known as Channel 0) and deputy news director ten years later. Team leader for special events such as the coverage of the 1990 Soccer World Cup and SBSTV’s 1994 move to its current Artarmon premises, in the mid-Nineties he moved from SBS to Italy’s public broadcaster RAI, reporting from Australia for almost 3 decades.
Urs Walterlin [Executive Board Member]:
Urs is the Australian correspondent for a number of European media outlets, including two of Germany big daily newspapers, as well as Swiss national radio and television.