At the February 2017 ANZIBA annual conference in Adelaide, the academy inducted its first life member – Professor Stephen Nicholas.  Back in the 9th September 1997, Stephen was one of four individuals who were instrumental in creating the Australia & New Zealand International Business Academy (aka ANZIBA). Stephen is now an Emeritus Professor of International Business and former PVC of Business and Law at the University of Newcastle.

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At the February 2019 ANZIBA annual conference in Perth, the academy inducted four more life members:

Professor Sid Gray, along side Professor Stephen Nicholas, was another of four individuals who were instrumental in creating the Australia & New Zealand International Business Academy (aka ANZIBA) in 1997. Trained academically in Accounting, Sid was one of the early movers in developing the profile of Accounting in the IB community, and is still active academically holding the position of Professor of International Business at the University of Sydney.  In addition to that, Sid still serves on the ANZIBA Executive.

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Professor Peter Dowling, in addition to being one of the more widely published Australian academics in the area of International HRM, was the president of ANZIBA from 2011 to 2017. Until 2019, Peter continued to serve on the ANZIBA Executive as the Past President.  Peter is now an Emeritus Professor of International Business at La Trobe University.

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Professor Lawrence Welch, while not having served in an elected position within ANZBA, was arguably one of the most published and cited Australian IB authors to date.  Beginning with his early career as a Post-Doc at Uppsala in the 1970’s, through to his more recent work on internationalization and foreign operations modes, Lawrence played an almost larger than life role in the Australian IB community. However, on 1 March 2019, Lawrence retired from active duty at the Melbourne Business School; and sadly passed away on 21 September 2020.

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Professor Denice Welch, along with her former thesis supervisor, Professor Peter Dowling, is one of the more active Australian academics in the field of International HRM.  In particular, in cooperation with her former doctoral student – Rebecca Piekkari, and her husband Lawrence, Denice has carved out a niche as the world’s leading expert on the role of language within MNEs.  On 1 March 2019, Denice retired permanently from the Melbourne Business School; although she will retain the title of Honorary Professor.

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At the February 2022 ANZIBA annual conference hosted by University of Victoria Wellington, the academy inducted a new life member:

Professor Elizabeth Rose, a Fellow of the Academy of International Business (AIB), served as the president of ANZIBA from 2005 to 2010. She has also been a Vice President (Administration) of the AIB, and was the founding Chair of what is now the AIB Oceania chapter. With a PhD in statistics, Beth is known as a quantitative expert in the IB field. Her research interests include international entrepreneurship and the internationalisation of firms to and from emerging markets. Beth is currently the Research Chair Professor of Business Policy and Strategy at the Indian Institute of Management Udaipur.

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At the February 2023 ANZIBA annual conference hosted by Deakin University, the academy inducted two new life members:

Professor Snejina Michailova is currently a Professor of International Business at the University of Auckland Business School, and is the Associate Dean of Research there. She has been at Auckland since 2005.  Prior to that she was an Associate Professor at Copenhagen Business School in Denmark.

In terms of research output, Professor Michailova has published over 100 articles in peer reviewed journals, including four articles in JIBS, and articles in other prestigious outlets such as AMR, JMS, JWB, and Org Studies. Snejina serves as Consulting Editor for Journal of International Management and is a member of the Editorial Review Boards of several journals, including Journal of Management Studies and Global Strategy Journal. She served as Editor Europe for Journal of World Business from 2001 to 2007 and Associate Editor (2009-2016) and Co-Editor-in-Chief for critical perspectives on international business (2017-2019).

Of immediate relevance here, Professor Michailova has tirelessly assisted ANIZA conferences, particularly with respect to our doctoral colloquium (DC). In particular, for this year – 2022 – Professor Michailova taken prime responsibility for running our DC under very challenging circumstances

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Professor Peter Leisch, at the time this was awarded, is not only a Fellow of the Academy of International Business (AIB), but he is also the incoming President of AIB.  Peter is currently a Professor of International Business at the UQ Business School, The University of Queensland, Australia, and is Discipline Leader of the International Business Group there. He has been at UQ since 1999.  Prior to that he was a Professor and Head of the School of Management at the University of Tasmania.

In terms of research output, Professor Liesch has published over 70 articles in peer reviewed journals, including nine articles in JIBS, and a further 10 articles in JWB; not to mention numerous books. Indeed, in 2019, Peter was awarded a Fiftieth Anniversary Silver Medal for publications in the Journal of International Business Studies.

Of immediate relevance here, Professor Liesch held the position of Vice President on the ANZIBA executive in the late 2000’s, but even more importantly, he has been a tireless supporter of ANZIBA – attending 10 of the past 12 ANZIBA conferences, and acting as conference host in both 2009 and 2018.

Beyond that, Peter has also held the position of Vice President Administration in the AIB, serves as an Area Editor of the Journal of International Business Studies, and has been a Senior Editor at the Journal of World Business and the Australian Journal of Management. In 2021 Peter was appointed an AIB Fellow.