Investment specialists, France

Nicholas Baker
Investment Commissioner, Paris

Tel: +33 (0)1 5677 1231

Dr Nicholas Baker has been the Australian Trade and Investment Commissioner based at the Australian Embassy in Paris since May 2009. Nicholas is also responsible for the Austrade team in Madrid. The Paris office undertakes investment promotion in France and Belgium. Nicholas’ investment work includes investment after care and Austrade’s research commercialisation program Investing in Research. Austrade Paris runs regular investment attraction seminars across a variety of sectors.

Prior to returning to Paris Nicholas was Trade Commissioner and Consul General at the Australian Consulate General in Lima Peru from 2005 to April 2009.

Nicholas is a fluent French and Spanish speaker.

Carolyn Abela Rebiscoul
Investment Manager, Paris

Tel: +33 (0)1 5677 1235

Carolyn Abela Rebiscoul is Investment Manager at Austrade Paris and works with international strategy and corporate development executives at large and medium sized companies to create the business case to invest in Australia across various sectors. As clean energy leader for Western Europe, Carolyn also leads Austrade’s trade and investment initiatives, notably on sustainable cities, energy efficiency and renewable energy.

Carolyn’s experience with the Australian Government since 2003 has allowed her to gain experience across various markets, notably in France, Ireland, Israel, Spain and the United Kingdom. Since starting in her role she has facilitated investment projects in different sectors including infrastructure, ICT, biotechnology and manufacturing. She previously held product management roles in telecom network services with Alcatel in Austria and with Vivendi Universal Networks in France.

Carolyn holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the Vienna University of Economics (Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien), where she specialised in International Business and Marketing. A native English speaker, Carolyn is fully fluent in French and German and is at ease working in Spanish.

Jean-Baptiste Nithart
Investment Commissioner, West Europe

Tel: +33 (0)1 5677 1234

Jean-Baptiste Nithart is Investment Commissioner Western Europe, based in Paris, leading the Austrade Investment Team across Western Europe and the WE Resources Technologies, Services and Processing team. He is part of the WE Infrastructure team and is also working in France to promote investment to Australia and attract French companies.

Jean-Baptiste has been working for the Australian Government since 1995. He was formerly Investment Director at Invest Australia from July 2002 and held a similar position with Austrade Paris for three years from 1999.

In his investment role, Jean-Baptiste has worked with tier 1 & tier 2 companies in Belgium, France, Italy and Spain and has contributed to the success of many investment projects across the advanced manufacturing, biotech, ICT, infrastructure, resources, or services industries.

From 1995 until he moved into an investment role, Jean-Baptiste was Marketing Director at Austrade Paris with a special focus on the ICT and defence sectors, including offset obligations.

Jean-Baptiste graduated in 1988 from EDC, a French business school, with a major in marketing. He is a French native speaker.

Claire Bourke
Investment Manager, Paris

Tel: +33 (0)1 5677 1233

Claire Bourke works with business development and international strategy executives within large and medium-sized corporations to build the business case for Australia across various sectors including life sciences, food processing and ICT.

Prior to joining Austrade, Claire worked as European business development manager for an international engineering company, specialised in pharmaceutical and advanced manufacturing. Claire has also worked in south Asian markets, with a particular focus on Singapore. Her private sector experience in France, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Singapore and Spain has ensured she has a well-developed understanding of what companies look for when expanding their business internationally. Claire speaks fluent French, Spanish, Italian and Irish.