Sir Roland Wilson Foundation

Helen is an economist and former diplomat, currently one of a cadre of senior experts providing strategic advice to the Prime Minister and rest of government. She is also the inaugural Non-Resident Fellow for Economic Security at the United States Studies Centre. Helen previously worked at Treasury and served Australia in New York, South Africa and Mexico with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. She is trained in analytical tradecraft and speaks Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese. 

Helen’s research draws on her expertise fusing economics, geopolitics and security for government. Today, economic security issues involve supply chains, growth and innovation as much as deterrence, commitment and pressure. This leads to tensions between the aims of economic security and statecraft policies. Helen has developed a rigorous framework to guide policymakers through these issues to find policies that can drive prosperity and add to regional deterrence and influence that will help Australia manage threats and develop new energy and technology systems. Helen's framework helps policymakers to identify and calibrate policies that move Australia towards desired economic security outcomes and find off-ramps away from unintended consequences or dangerous outcomes.