Appointed to the Australian Government's Australia-ASEAN Council Board in October, Hayley Winchcombe's career in international public policy is going from strength to strength. Her professional passion for Southeast Asia began when she was appointed the inaugural New Colombo Plan ASEAN Fellow in 2018.
According to the University of Western Australia graduate, perhaps one of the most inspiring experiences in her journey to date came during an internship as part of the NCP scholarship.
After completing her study component at Nanyang Technical University in Singapore, Hayley interned at three organisations – the ASEAN Foundation, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's Australian Mission to ASEAN, and AustCham ASEAN.
But it was in a volunteer capacity at the ASEAN Foundation's 2018 eMpowering Youths Across ASEAN regional capacity building and orientation workshop in Bangkok, that she would cement her ambitions to drive engagement in the region.
"The workshop in Bangkok brought together about 100 young people from across the region and for me it was a pivotal moment," she says.
"The room was brimming with talent and energy, people full of big ideas and ambitions to make a difference in society.
"When you consider that a third of ASEAN is made up of people aged under 35 years, you realise it is this group that holds the future of the region in their hands.
"And it is an incredibly diverse group - ASEAN has more Catholics than France and Spain combined and more Muslims than the Middle East but the collaboration and cooperation it has forged has seen it emerge as a force on the world stage and one that is significant for Australia."
Building on her experiences with ASEAN youth, Hayley, together with other like-minded NCP scholars and alumni, brought to life the ASEAN-Australia Strategic Youth Partnership (AASYP), a volunteer-based group with the goal of promoting relationships between Southeast Asian partners and Australian Youth.
AASYP staged its first youth forum in Jakarta in 2019 at Tokopedia, and using digital connections and innovative events has established a vibrant network.
"There is so much potential in the region, yet I think Australians know very little about ASEAN and we need to be learning and engaging more," Hayley says.
"AASYP is an umbrella for a community where discussion, research and partnership focusing on challenges and opportunities such as climate, the environment, modern slavery, migration and settlement, education, women's empowerment and more is now occurring every day."
Hayley is strongly focused on staying connected with Southeast Asia as she builds her consultancy career. Now an Associate for Mandala Partners, Hayley works in economics, policy and business strategy focussing on tech strategy and policy, the net zero transition, federal and state government strategies, economic and social impact, and corporate responsibility to support business clients.
But she sees her future belonging to a more immersive engagement with the ASEAN region.
"The 13 months I spent in Southeast Asia through the NCP scholarship was transformational," she says.
"Now many of my closest friends live and work in Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia.
"It's my ambition to return to Southeast Asia and start a business, leveraging my network started through NCP, working on a common cause and making a positive impact."