Brett Charlton has been involved in international logistics for over thirty years at management level in Australia and overseas, predominately in the corporate sector. For the last ten years Brett has worked with Agility Logistics (a multinational logistics company) after they acquired his own successful freight forwarding business in 2013. During this time in Tasmania, Australia, Agility has gained a reputation as a solution based business with strong ties in the aquaculture, agricultural, manufacturing and retail sectors. Further to Brett’s involvement with Agility he is also the Chairman of the Tasmanian Logistics Committee, National Board member and Tasmanian Vice President of the Australia China Business Council and sits on the board of the Tasmanian Agricultural Productivity Group and has recently been appointed to the Australian Freight Industry Reference Panel. Brett has visited China on a number of occasions on behalf of Agility and also as part of Tasmanian Government Trade missions. Brett is a regular commentator of matters relating to Freight and Logistics in such publications as the Daily Commercial News (Australia). Based in Tasmania, Australia his children attend the school that President Xi Jinping visited on his historic visit to Tasmania in 2014. Brett considers himself a friend to China and is of the firm belief that our future trading success hinges on continued good relations between our two countries.

Maggie Zhou was appointed Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand in March 2016 for Alibaba Group. As one of the key veterans of the company, Maggie has witnessed major company developments as the company has expanded its businesses outside of China and as well as the progression and development of Mainland China’s e-commerce market. In her current role, as part of the company’s globalisation strategy, she is responsible for establishing a local presence for Alibaba in Australia and New Zealand to further develop infrastructure and help local merchants enter the vast China consumer market.

Prior to this role, Maggie worked closely with the Australia and New Zealand business development team on Tmall Global, a cross-border B2C business platform for Tmall, and was in charge of overall government and public affairs for the platform. She has worked closely with the Australian Trade Commission (Austrade), showcasing the value of the China e-commerce market to Australian brands and businesses. In Maggie’s earlier days with Alibaba, she helped the Group establish Taobao Marketplace in 2003 as one of the nine founders of the C2C platform, and served as Executive Assistant to Jack Ma, the founder and Executive Chairman of Alibaba, for almost five years. Maggie joined Alibaba in early 2000 as one of the veteran employees of the company. In August 2017, Maggie Zhou was appointed a Victorian Business Ambassador by the State Government of Victoria.
Maggie has been a key contributor to Alibaba Group’s strategy to internationalise its business and its mission – to make it easy to do business anywhere.