Academic faculty

Kevin is the IOE&IT Academy Director, a key member of the Institute’s management team and an energetic and self-motivated individual with a strong knowledge of education, trade and finance and international trade, built up over many years in senior management positions. His experience includes delivering year on year sales growth of 15%+, managing revenue lines totaling more than £50m.

He has managed top 100 banking connections in HBOS covering International Trade strategy and procedures, including Sports Direct, Alexander Dennis and innocent Drinks. Supported complex International Trade structures.

Kevin has been instrumental in winning large financial services and trade finance business with connections such as Arcadia, innocent Drinks and Towergate Insurance, and supported international trade growth in a number of SME exporting businesses.

Kevin was a member of the Bank of Scotland Management Development Programme supporting top talent in the business leading large teams in diverse locations with different skills sets.

Kevin has developed trade and customs qualification programmes and delivered specific learning programmes to large organisations including Scottish Enterprise, UK Export Finance, Invest Northern Ireland, Barclays Bank, Bolero and Coface. Kevin has also led overseas trade initiatives in Estonia, Saudi Arabia and Tajikistan.

Professor Andrew Grainger is a trade facilitation practitioner, academic and educator with over 20 years of experience.

He works closely with universities and research institutes around the world, is regularly contracted by government agencies, companies and international organisations and has held various short term consultancy (STC) appointments with the World Bank.

In previous roles, Andrew was the Deputy Director for Trade Procedures at SITPRO (the UK’s former trade facilitation agency) and Secretary for EUROPRO (the umbrella body for European trade facilitation organisations).

His PhD thesis in Supply Chain Management and Trade Facilitation was awarded the prestigious Palgrave Macmillan Prize for best PhD in Maritime Economics and Logistics 2005-2008.

Andrew is very experienced in working with both the public and private sector. In addition to his expertise in trade and customs procedures he has also led a series of projects that deal with risk and uncertainty at UK ports (borders) and port-dependent supply chains, especially in the food sectors.

Andrew has written more than 100 articles, studies, reports, book chapters and teaching notes. Much of his work is published by international organisations.  He has served as witness at the UK Parliament, and has also conducted workshops for members of the European Parliament.

Associate Professor Greg Weppner is the CCES course director for all border-related academic courses at Charles Sturt University including the Master of Customs Administration and the Bachelor of Border Management Degrees.

Greg holds a Bachelor of Commerce and a Masters of International Customs Law and Administration. He has a wide range of customs specific skills following 37 years’ experience in customs service in both a regional port and central office customs environment which included a period as Australia’s Customs Representative in Washington DC.

Greg actively contributed to the revision of the Kyoto Convention as a member of the WCO working party and has represented Australia at many other meetings at the WCO and other international organizations.

Greg has significant experience in anti-dumping matters including being responsible for the technical anti-dumping input to Australia’s negotiation team at the WTO Doha Round of trade negotiations. He has three times served as a WTO panellist adjudicating anti-dumping WTO disputes.

Associate Professor Dr Robert Preece has over 33 years’ experience in customs and border tax revenues, with specific expertise in compliance and risk management. Rob holds a PhD in addition to Masters and Bachelor qualifications.

Rob spent 12 years in South East Asia, including periods embedded with the World Bank and Asian Development Bank assignments inside local customs administrations.

He is currently leading teams undertaking a diagnostic of the Papua New Guinea Customs Service and separately the modernisation of the Bangladesh Bonded Warehouse system. Included in Rob’s experience is 15 years with the Australian Customs Service.

Associate Professor Mark Harrison is an experienced consultant and lecturer specialising in international customs and trade law. Mark has a Masters of International Customs Law and Administration and an Honours degree in Law from the Australian National University. Mark’s early career was in the Australian diplomatic service with postings in Moscow and Vienna. He then joined Customs and held senior positions in Passenger Processing, Anti-Dumping and Commercial Compliance. Mark has worked as a consultant on Customs matters in USA, Jordan, Dubai, Kenya, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Timor Leste and Australia. He is also a specialist lecturer in International Trade Law, and has taught the subject not only in Australia but also at the East China University of Science and Technology (Shanghai), at Ningbo University in China and at Muenster University (Germany).

Mr Brent Juratowitch is a senior lecturer and is responsible for all accredited and non-accredited vocational education and training programs at CCES. He is also the principal assessor for the Advanced Diploma of International Business Management which includes modules on international trade terms, trade law, market development, business strategy development and implementation.

Brent holds a Bachelor of Economics, a Masters of Business Administration, a Graduate Certificate in Customs Administration and a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment.

He has over 36 years’ experience in international trade both in the public and private sectors, including 25 years with the Australian Trade Commission (Austrade) including a period as Australia’s Commercial Consul and Trade Commissioner in Osaka, Japan.

Included in Brent’s experience is leading teams undertaking trade facilitation and customs modernisation projects in South East Asia, Central Asia and the Pacific.

Mr Shane Davie has over 37 years of experience working in customs. He holds a Bachelor of Business degree and a Master of International Customs Law and Administration.

Shane’s various roles include regulatory compliance and the control, movement, risk management, examination, clearance and revenue aspects of cargo. He is currently a subject convener and senior lecturer for the undergraduate and post graduate Customs and Border Protection degree courses at Charles Sturt University.

Shane has also facilitated the Customs International Executive Management Program and the Pacific Customs Management Program on behalf of the Australian Customs Service, and has delivered vocational training courses in Thailand, Jordan, Indonesia and the Maldives.

From 2014 to 2017 Shane was part of the team that conducted a diagnostic analysis of the Solomon Islands' customs capacity and capability and assisted management to establish strategic change agenda. Shane has also participated in projects related to the introduction of a national single window in Laos and Sri Lanka.

Jenny has extensive experience across all areas of customs and border management from a policy, legislative, interdepartmental coordination and operational perspective. Jenny holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Graduate Diploma of Teaching.

She has represented the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service at numerous international fora, including in the Pacific.

In 2015, Jenny led the CCES team that completed the World Bank Country Assessment and Diagnostic for Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Samoa, Tonga and Papua New Guinea on the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement.

Since 2000, Bénédicte Meille has been actively involved in customs training & capacity building (CB). From 2000 to 2016, she has been working for the World Customs Organization (WCO) on human resource development (HRD), customs & modernisation and CB programs.

She has managed and supported the development of the current WCO Human Resource Management (HRM) and Human Resource Development (HRD) strategy, setting up standards, guidelines and tools for customs competencies, customs career pathing, distance and collaborative learning and development, and accreditation of customs trainers.

She has been instrumental in the adoption of WCO competency-based experiential learning and development strategy for the international customs community.

Vicky Payne has over 20 years’ experience in logistics, supply chain and customs compliance environments, previously working for businesses such as Caterpillar Logistics, Neovia Logistics and Jaguar Land Rover Limited.

Vicky’s career started in import and export operations dealing with trade documentation leading onto managing a team of analysts. She then went on to join Jaguar Land Rover Limited in the customs compliance team dealing with all aspects of trade including imports and exports, special procedures and duty mitigation, finally specialising in origin and preference whilst supporting the Brexit readiness teams throughout the business. During her career, Vicky has obtained a Business Management Degree with Honours through Coventry University.

Recently, Vicky has supported the Trader Support service, Institute of Export & International Trade and the UK Customs Academy by delivering post Brexit content updates, providing students with tutoring support and developing educational and training programmes.

Vicky is also a member of various government trade and customs committees.