About Us

Strategic Forum’s senior managers and directors are, as follows:

Dr Ross Babbage AM

Ross Babbage is the Chief Executive Officer and a director of Strategic Forum.

He is also a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) in Washington, D.C. and Managing Director of Strategy International (ACT) Pty Ltd.

Dr Babbage served for 16 years in the Australian Public Service holding several senior positions, including Senior Strategic Analyst in the Office of National Assessments and leading the branches in the Department of Defence responsible for ANZUS and global strategic policy and then Force Development. During the 1990s he held senior executive positions with ADI Pty Ltd, that was then Australia’s largest defence manufacturing and services organisation. In 2003 and 2004 he served as Head of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University. Dr Babbage was a special advisor to the Minister for Defence during the preparation of the 2009 Australian defence white paper. He was also served on the Council of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London for a maximum six year term.

Ross has bachelor and master degrees in Economics from the University of Sydney and a PhD in International Relations from the Australian National University. Ross was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2011.

Joshua Kennedy-White

Joshua Kennedy-White is a director of Strategic Forum.

Joshua advises private equity firms venture capital firms on investment and acquisitions in cybersecurity, digital identity and analytics. He holds patents in Choice Modelling and Experimental Design and is a Director of Ripjar, a UK analytics company that uses advanced data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence to protect institutions and governments from money laundering, fraud, cyber-crime and terrorism.

Joshua was previously the Global Security Lead for Accenture’s Government Security business and Managing Director responsible for Accenture’s security engagements across the Asia Pacific, Africa and the Middle East. He established Accenture’s Intelligence and National Security Practice in Australia and has devised and led complex, mission-related projects in the national security space, notably in Countering Violent Extremism.