New Zealand Asia Institute
Our people
The New Zealand Asia Institute team includes our Director, various researchers and an administrative team.
Natasha Hamilton-Hart is Acting Director of NZAI in 2013, Director of Southeast Asia Studies Centre and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Management and International Business. She has a BA(Hons) from the University of Otago and a PhD from Cornell University. Natasha joined The University of Auckland in 2011, after teaching at the National University of Singapore for ten years and holding a postdoctoral fellowship at the Australian National University.
Natasha’s research interests include regional integration and cooperation in East Asia, business in Southeast Asia and business-government relations, particularly in the banking and natural resource sectors. She is the author of Asian States, Asian Bankers: Central Banking in Southeast Asia and (forthcoming), Hard Interests, Soft Illusions: Southeast Asia and American Power, both with Cornell University Press.
Hugh Whittaker is Director of the New Zealand Asia Institute, and Professor and Head of the Department of Management and International Business. He has a BA from ICU, Tokyo, and a PhD from Imperial College, London. After carrying out postdoctoral research at Harvard University, he taught at Cambridge University for 12 years, before helping to set up a business school and research institute at Doshisha University, Kyoto.
His research interests include Japanese and comparative management, innovation and entrepreneurship, and development models in east Asia. Recent publications include Recovering From Success: Technology and Innovation Management in Japan (co-edited with R Cole, 2006), Comparative Entrepreneurship: The UK, Japan and the Shadow of Silicon Valley (Whittaker et al 2009) and forthcoming Corporate Governance and Management Reform in Japan (co-edited with S Deakin), all from Oxford University Press.
Dr Xin Chen joined the Institute in 1997. Prior to that she was with the East West Centre in Honolulu for 11 years, first as a degree fellow, then a research assistant and finally a research fellow. During that time she also gained her PhD in Political Science in the University of Hawaii.
Prior to going to America, she was a lecturer at the English Department of Peking University where she received her BA and MA in English literature and linguistics, and then a senior lecture at China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing. Her research interests focus on Chinese politics, and China and East Asian regional integration. She has been a key player in many of the Institute’s research initiatives.
Charles Chow is the NZAI Asian Network Adviser. He is a business alumnus of the university, chartered accountant turned corporate/investment banker with JP Morgan Chase, equity research director, stockbroker and deal maker for DBS Vickers Securities. He retired from the financial industry after 13 years to manage a diversified investment portfolio. He is a also a part time senior tutor in the Department of Accounting and Finance. Based out of Singapore and Auckland, Charles develops business links for NZAI in Asia.
