Xiaoting (Maya) Liu is Program Manager, China, at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. She is a Master of International Affairs graduate from the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University.
Julia G. Bentley is currently a Senior Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, an External Research Associate of the York Centre for Asian Research, a Non-Resident Fellow at National Taiwan University`s Centre for China Studies, and a member of the Board of Governors of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Malaysia. Julia is also a Distinguished Fellow with the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.
She served in the Canadian foreign service with distinction for 32 years, occupying several senior executive positions at Global Affairs Canada related to Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia.
Julia has also represented Canada as a diplomat abroad. She served as Canada’s High Commissioner in Malaysia (2017-2020) and previously at the Canadian Embassy in Beijing (twice), the Canadian High Commission in Delhi, and the Canadian Trade Office in Taipei.
Combined with other roles including as a teacher, development consultant, and head of an international organization, she spent 22 years working in Asia.
Elizabeth Donkervoort is the Senior Advisor, China Programs for the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. She holds a JD and a Master of Asia Pacific Policy Studies from the University of British Columbia and specializes in legal and institutional policy analysis of governance, security, and regulatory frameworks, with attention to rights-protective safeguards, emerging technologies, and real-world governance implications in People's Republic of China-related and comparative contexts.
Dr. Jeehye Kim is the Senior Program Manager of Northeast Asia at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, overseeing the research program related to Japan, Mongolia, North and South Korea, and Taiwan.
Erin is Director, Programs, at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, where she oversees programs related to Asia competencies and education and spearheads the Foundation’s Canada-Asia Young Professionals Development program.
Prior to joining APF Canada, Erin supported the Canadian Member Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP), a regional Track II security dialogue. In that role, she assisted with two Canada co-chaired study groups: one on regional peacekeeping and peace-building, and another on the responsibility to protect (R2P). She also was Associate Editor (with Brian Job) of CSCAP’s annual flagship publication, The CSCAP Regional Security Outlook. Erin has worked as an Editorial Assistant at Pacific Affairs and in the field of immigrant and refugee education in Minnesota and California.
Erin has a master’s degree in Asia Pacific Policy Studies from the University of British Columbia and a master’s degree in International Relations from Boston University.
Seyyed Milad Shirvani is a postdoctoral researcher in international business and global strategy at HEC Montréal and Simon Fraser University. He holds a PhD in Management from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. His research examines how the twin transformations of the global economy—sensitive technologies and geopolitical fragmentation—are reshaping the strategies of countries and multinational enterprises.
Seyyed also conducts related work on the geography of innovation, the structure of global value chains, and international public and private procurement. His work has been presented at Global Affairs Canada, the International Economic Forum of the Americas, and other international policy and research institutions.
Seungjoo Lee is Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Chung-Ang University (Seoul, Korea), Chair of the Trade, Technology, and Transformation Research Center at the East Asia Institute, and Senior Research Affiliate at the Berkeley APEC Study Center (BASC) at the University of California at Berkeley.
Lee is a member of the Advisory Committee on Economic Security and Foreign Affairs (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Korea) and a member of the Policy Advisory Board of the Ministry of National Defense. His current research focuses on the economy-security nexus, economic statecraft, the U.S.-China technology competition, and global digital governance. He received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of California at Berkeley.
Sasha Lee is a former Post Graduate Research Scholar with the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada’s Southeast Asia team. She completed her Master's in Political Science from the University of British Columbia and earned her bachelor's from Korea University double majoring in Political Science and Media Communications. Her work includes research into renewable technologies and environmental governance of developing nations.
Dr. Stephen Nagy is originally from Calgary, Alberta. He received his PhD in International Relations/Studies from Waseda University in 2008. His main affiliation is professor of politics and international studies at the International Christian University, Tokyo.
Stephen is also a Senior Fellow (non-resident) with APF Canada, a fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute (CGAI), a visiting fellow with the Japan Institute for International Affairs (JIIA), a senior fellow at the MacDonald Laurier Institute (MLI), and a senior fellow with the East Asia Security Centre (EASC). He also serves as the Director of Policy Studies for the Yokosuka Council of Asia Pacific Studies (YCAPS), spearheading the Council’s Indo-Pacific Policy Dialogue series.
The tentative title for his forthcoming monograph is “Japan as an Adapter Middle Power: Navigating Ideological and Systemic Divides.”
Dr. Hema Nadarajah is Program Manager, Southeast Asia, with the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. She has a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of British Columbia where she researched governance in the Arctic, climate change, and Outer Space. Dr. Nadarajah consults for WWF and formerly worked for the Government of Singapore on issues of international biodiversity conservation and climate change.
