Sharon Bignell

Sharon joined Austrade in October 2020 and commenced as Consul and Trade Commissioner (Osaka) in January 2021.

Sharon has a background in international education, where she was most recently the Associate Director, International at Bond University from 2018 to 2020. Prior to that, she was part of Griffith University’s international team from 2014 to 2017, responsible for student recruitment from North East Asia. Sharon has also held a number of other education roles in Australia, Japan and the UK in the ELICOS and higher education sectors.

Sharon speaks Japanese and has lived and worked in Japan for approximately 10 years, including undertaking exchange programs in Okayama and Sapporo, working as a Coordinator for International Relations on the JET Programme in Mie, and for the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations (CLAIR) in Tokyo. She also worked for the Australian Embassy Tokyo from 2011 to 2013.

A graduate of the University of Technology Sydney majoring in International Business and Japanese, Sharon also holds a Master’s degree in International Relations from Macquarie University.