Strategic Forum Ltd is incorporated as a not-for-profit company. The current 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. In addition, Ross is Founder of the Kokoda Foundation and a Founding Governor of the Institute for Regional Security, Chair of the Academic Council of the Australian Business Academy, a member of Accenture’s Advisory Board and a member of the Academic Advisory Council of the Menzies Research Centre.
Dr Babbage served for 16 years in the Australian Public Service holding several senior positions, including Head of Strategic Analysis 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. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2011.
Dr Miles Jakeman
Dr Miles Jakeman is a director of Strategic Forum.
Miles is the co-founder and former Managing Director of the ASX-listed Citadel Group Limited (ASX:CGL). For over 30 years, he has advised senior business leaders and Government officials, including representing countries in ministerial level forums. His key skills cover business strategy, leadership, security risk management and high-performance team development. Miles also has significant overseas working experience with multinational companies in sales, marketing and business development capacities with full profit and loss responsibilities.
Miles has a Bachelor of Science (Hons), a Graduate Diploma in Asian Studies, a Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) in Asian Studies and a second PhD in Business Leadership. He has also completed the AICD Advanced Diploma Mastering the Boardroom and the AICD Diploma of International Company Directors, plus holds an Advanced Diploma Project Management. He is a visiting Fellow at the Australian National University, a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and the ACT’s Capital Angels.
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 hold 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.