Damian is known to many people across QAAFI. He was formerly with UQ Business School and has worked extensively with a number of people in QAAFI over the years. Damian went away to run a business school In Ireland and has come back to join us in his role in future markets and BioEconomies.

Damian is what’s called an Evolutionary Economist which means he studies change and innovation processes and the sprints in particularly into areas of science and technology and the change driven by scientific endeavours.

His work ranges widely, having been an advisor to the World Bank on the impact of small enterprise programs on remote communities in Southeast Asia, developing industry investment plans for Hort innovation, undertaking national studies on productivity in horticulture, regulation in digital health, freight and logistics, investment in the biotechnology sector, international reports for the OECD, World Bank, UNESCO, and international research with ACIAR, The Pacific Community, innovation and commercialisation for the Vietnam and Chilean governments, using whole of farm economic models to build viable pearl industries in Fiji and Tonga, as well as horticultural innovation in the Pacific. He has worked extensively with NGOs particularly in marine ecosystems where his work focused on enterprise led solutions to overfishing, bomb fishing and cyanide fishing in Indonesia and the Philippines, particularly by shortening supply chains. He has also worked with the FAO on water scarcity and cross-border solutions to water security and food security, and helped design a major international project with the FAO on modelling the trade-offs between the sustainable development goals for FAO funded and operated projects. He has also consulted far and wide, and run consulting companies.

Researcher biography