Authors

Pitman B. Potter is Professor Emeritus in Law, University of British Columbia; Distinguished Fellow, Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada; and, a Member of the Order of Canada.

Robert Williams is a Kitchener, Ontario-based journalist and feature writer for the Waterloo Region Record. As part of The Record’s investigations unit, he has worked on long-term projects on Conestoga College’s international student enrolment, Ontario’s public education achievement outcomes, and the Government of Ontario’s COVID-19 pandemic response. 

Robert is a winner of the Goff Penny Award and Atlantic Journalism Award for feature writing, and his work has appeared in publications across Canada, including the Toronto Star, iPolitics, and the Telegraph-Journal.

Dr. Sanjay Ruparelia is an Associate Professor of Politics and the inaugural Jarislowsky Democracy Chair at Toronto Metropolitan University. He is the author of Divided We Govern: Coalition Politics in Modern India, editor of The Indian Ideology, and co-editor of Understanding India’s New Political Economy: A Great Transformation? 

Sanjay serves as co-chair of Participedia, an international network that studies democratic innovations, and co-hosts On the Frontlines of Democracy, a monthly podcast and lecture series with TMU School of Journalism and the Toronto Public Library, respectively. He regularly contributes essays and commentary to prominent media outlets in Canada and abroad.

His current research analyzes democratic backsliding, the contentious transformations of India and China over the last decade, and the evolution of rights, welfare, and constitutionalism in the global South.

Woojoo Hong is a Research Scholar at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, funded by the Korea Foundation’s Global Challengers Program. Woojoo holds a master’s in international studies, focusing on International Development and Cooperation, from Korea University.

Hugh Stephens has more than 35 years of government and business experience in the Asia Pacific region. He is currently Vice-Chair of the Canadian Committee on Pacific Economic Cooperation (CANCPEC), Executive Fellow at the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary, Principal of TransPacific Connections, and a Distinguished Fellow with the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. In addition, he teaches in the MBA program at Royal Roads University as an Associate Faculty member.

Before returning to Canada in December 2009, Hugh was Senior Vice President (Public Policy) for Asia Pacific for Time Warner for almost a decade, located at the company’s regional headquarters in Hong Kong.

Charlotte Atkins is a former Project Specialist with the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada's Business Asia team. She has a Masters in Political Science and Asian Studies from the University of Toronto, where her research focused on contentious politics in Asia. She has since expanded her research areas to include policy, trade, and investment between Canada and the Asia Pacific through her work at APF Canada.

Shruti Jhunjhunwala is a Research Scholar with the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada’s International Trade and Investment Team. She holds an MSc in International Business from HEC Montreal. Her research interests include private-public partnerships as well as inclusive and sustainable trade.

Alberto Iskandar is a Research Scholar with the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. He received his undergraduate degree from Simon Fraser University, majoring in political science and minoring in international studies and graduating in 2021. His research interests are multilateralism in Southeast Asia and ASEAN; sustainable development; and security and defence-related issues in Southeast Asia. He previously worked as a Research Officer at the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia.

Charlotte Bull has a background in various inter-disciplinary policy domains, including Canada-Asia relations, climate change, reconciliation and human rights. She holds a Masters in Public Policy & Global Affairs from the University of British Columbia and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science & Geography with Honours from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.