Meet our Leaders
As AIB Oceania’s main governing body, our leadership team is responsible for member outreach, facilitating professional development opportunities and engagement with diverse stakeholders, and organizing our annual Chapter Conference.
Below, you’ll find background details on each of our team members, our roles and responsibilities, and contact information to help you connect with us online.
Maureen Benson-Rea
President & Chair
President & Chair
Maureen Benson-Rea
Elected President of AIB Oceania Chapter in November 2020, Dr Maureen Benson-Rea is an Associate Professor in the Department of Management and International Business at the University of Auckland Business School, where she is currently also Associate Dean Postgraduate Research. With a BA (Hons) in European Studies, an MBA and a PhD in Marketing and International Business, Maureen held academic positions in the UK as well as several international policy roles with a major UK business organisation, the Confederation of British industry. There she advised companies, developed policy and represented the views of British business, with focus on the EU, in Whitehall, Westminster, and Brussels.
Maureen was the founding co-director of the University of Auckland’s Europe Institute and represents the Institute on the New Zealand Europe Business Council. A company director and board chair, Maureen specialises in international business and strategy, with a particular focus on the European region. She has supervised over 100 postgraduate students and her research has appeared in International Business Review, Management International Review, European Management Journal, Industrial Marketing Management, Marketing Theory, Public Administration, Journal of Business Research, and Multinational Business Review among others.
Sara McGaughey
Immediate-Past President & Chair
Immediate-Past President and Chair
The Immediate-Past Chapter Chair assists the current Chapter Chair in the execution of their duties, at their request.
Sara Lisa McGaughey
Sara McGaughey is Professor at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark, and holds a Ph.D. awarded by the University of Queensland, and an MBA(International Business) and B.A.(Japanese) from Monash University, Australia. Sara’s research in international business is at the intersection of strategy, organisation and entrepreneurship, and appears in journals such as Academy of Management Review, Journal of International Business Studies, Business History, Journal of Management Studies, Journal of International Management, Journal of World Business and Management International Review, and in research monographs on corporate entrepreneurship and small firm internationalisation.
A passionate educator and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, UK (SFHEA), Sara is committed to research-led engaged pedagogies that help equip students and practitioners with the skills to question, critique and generate new knowledge such that they may not only respond and adapt, but also anticipate and shape the world in which they live and work. Sara served as President and Chair of the Academy of International Business–Oceania Chapter (2018-2020), and serves on the editorial boards of Journal of World Business and Management International Review.
Noemi Sinkovics
VP, Communications
VP Communications
The Vice President Communications is responsible for the development, integration, and implementation of the Chapter’s communication strategy and contributes to its organizational strategic planning process. Further, the VP Communications is responsible for the Chapter’s varied and integrated communications products and services including the website, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Noemi Sinkovics
Noemi Sinkovics is Senior Lecturer in Management and International Business at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Prior to that she worked at the University of Manchester, UK and held a Fox Visiting Scholar position at Temple University, USA. Before her election to the AIB Oceania Chapter’s board as Vice President Communications, she served at the AIB UK and Ireland (UK&I) Chapter’s board. Her responsibilities included the design and implementation of the AIB UK&I Chapter’s communications and social media strategies including the redesign of the website and the increase of the Chapter’s visibility in the social media space. Noemi is also the social media coordinator for critical perspectives on international business, a niche journal in the International Business journal landscape (currently, the only journal that exclusively supports critically reflexive discussion of the nature and impact of international business activity around the globe from a number of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives).
Noemi is Section Editor for Data in Brief, and editorial board member for several IB journals. Her research interests are social, environmental and economic upgrading in global value chains, sustainable development, and theoretical and practical issues around entrepreneurship (including international and social entrepreneurship). Her work has been published in Journal of World Business, International Business Review, International Marketing Review, Journal of Business Research, Management International Review, Journal of International Management, European Journal of International Management, Journal of Interactive Marketing, critical perspectives on international business and as chapter contributions to edited volumes.
Virginia Cathro
VP, Secretary – Treasurer
VP, Secretary - Treasurer
The Vice President, Secretary-Treasurer helps to record and communicate chapter business, as well as overseeing the group’s financial activities.
Virginia Cathro
Virginia Cathro is currently a researcher and educator in the Department of Management at the University of Otago and the International Business Director Undergraduate. She describes herself as a teacher, coach, facilitator, researcher and project enthusiast. Her research work has appeared in several peer reviewed scientific publications.
She has published in academic journals in the areas of intercultural negotiation, developing global virtual team competences, mediation and conflict resolution, critical reflection and experiential learning, the future of work using Delphi method and scenario planning, graduate competencies and selection practices, e-mentoring and expatriate performance management. Her current research focus examines global virtual team performance, internationalisation and foreign direct investment and indigenous research practices encompassing the business challenges faced and embraced by New Zealand Maori
Anna Earl
VP, Membership & Outreach
VP, Membership & Outreach
Anna Earl
Dr Anna Earl has earned her PhD from The University of Auckland Business School, in International Business and is now a Lecturer in Management at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. Her main research interests include: the relationship between government and multinational enterprises in Russia and other emerging economies, internationalization processes of multinational enterprises from emerging economies and application of institutional theory to various disciplines. She is also interested in methodological issues related to conducting research in emerging economies, as well as under adverse conditions. Her recent research interest is in societies in smart cities. She serves on editorial boards for Journal of International Management and Review of International Business and Strategy.
Omid Aliasghar
VP, Business Engagement
VP, Business Engagement
Omid Aliasghar
Dr Omid Aliasghar is a lecturer at Auckland University of Technology. His research focuses on how firms generate and exploit novel ideas in order to gain and sustain their competitive positions in international markets. Specifically, his research is about (a) how and where firms, especially SMEs, search for knowledge to develop their capabilities and innovation-related activities; (b) How can firms develop their competitive positions in international markets? (c) What happens to novel ideas once they come into the firm? (d) What determines the success or failure of the firm in technology commercialization?
His research has been published in journals such as Industrial Marketing Management Journal (ABDC A*) and Journal of Small Business Management (ABDC A).
Omid is one of the youngest members of the “Building New Zealand’s Innovation Capacity” research team, part of the National Science Challenge (Science for Technological Innovation). This project has been funded for $72m for five years. He has been also appointed to the editorial review board of the Review of International Business and Strategy journal.
Under Recruitment
TBA
Simon is the Head of Department for International Business, Strategy and Entrepreneurship and leader of the Business & Labour History Group within the New Zealand Work Research Institute. Simon is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and former President of the Academic Association of Historians in Australian and New Zealand Business Schools (AAHANZBS).
Simon's principal research interest focuses on international business strategy, networks and alliances within a historical framework. In particular this research has examined industries that have been transformed by changes in organisation and technology, such as the grocery and the publishing industries. His research has gained support both from industry, major research funding bodies such as the Leverhulme Trust, the Economic and Social Research Council (UK), and government.
Simon has been teaching in business schools at graduate and postgraduate level since 1994, and currently teaches on a range of papers across the PhD, MBus, MBA and BBus programmes, and has delivered executive development programmes for major organizations internationally.