Tom Bentley elected new President of IASP Asia Pacific Division

IASP is pleased to announce that Tom Bentley (Melbourne Innovation Districts, Australia) has been elected as the new President of the IASP Asia Pacific Division.

He takes over from Suwipa Wanasathop (Thailand Science Park, Thailand), whom we thank for her hard work and continuous support as she reaches the end of her term.

Tom Bentley is the Executive Director of RMIT University, one of the key actors in the partnership that constitutes Melbourne Innovation Districts. The partnership is working on shaping the city’s future through open collaboration and shared projects to support the local economy by creating new jobs, enterprises, services, and spaces. Prior to Melbourne Innovation Districts, Tom worked as an advisor on public policy, as well as serving as Director of Demos (UK think tank).

As he officially accepted the presidency, Tom said:

“Given the importance of IASP's international work, for community-building, knowledge-sharing and development of institutional models that are effective in growing the role of knowledge in supporting inclusive, sustainable economic development, I am keen to play a part in working with our Asia-Pacific colleagues and relating their work to IASP's global priorities.”

IASP would like to thank outgoing President Suwipa Wanasathop for her dedication to the association and the Asia Pacific division, for a more in-depth conversation with Suwipa read her interview in our blog.