About Us

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CANZUK International was founded in January 2015 and is the world’s leading advocacy organization promoting facilitated migration, free trade and foreign policy coordination between Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom (the “CANZUK” countries).

Our campaign advocates closer cooperation between these four nations so they may build upon existing economic, diplomatic and institutional ties to forge a cohesive alliance of nation-states with a truly global outlook.

Our proposals will ensure that Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom not only sustain economic prosperity, but develop travel and employment opportunities for each of their citizens as part of a global initiative.

Our work has been recognized by senior government officials and diplomats across the world and we have engaged millions of citizens within these countries to support and campaign for our proposals.

For general enquiries, please contact us at admin@canzukinternational.com. For interview and media requests, please contact media@canzukinternational.com.

Executive Board of Directors

James Skinner

Founder & Chief Executive

James is the Founder and Chief Executive of CANZUK International. Born in South Wales in the UK, James was educated at Kent School in Connecticut, USA before attending Cardiff University in Wales to study Law and Politics. He soon worked extensively within governments around the world, including the US Congressional Office in Florida, the Australian Senate in Canberra and the Houses of Parliament in London, UK. He currently resides in Toronto, Canada and has spoken internationally about the CANZUK initiative.

John Bender

Chairman

John serves as Chairman of Matthew Bender & Co. Holdings Ltd., an investment office associated with one of the founding families of a FTSE 100 publishing concern. Between 1988 and 2001, John worked at Morgan Stanley, Barings and Coutts. He served as special adviser to The Prince of Wales’s charities office between 2004 and 2014 as well as councillor of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea between 1990 and 1994. Between 1993 and 2005, John acted as chairman of a Conservative Party discussion group for the business community and is a full member of the Society of Trust and Estates Practitioners.

Nigel Greenwood

Director

Nigel is an Australian political writer and former senior analyst in the Australian Government. In the 1990s he wrote a civil libertarian defence of the Crown in the Westminster system, arguing against the Australian republican initiative. The book was subsequently endorsed by eminent judicial figures including the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Queensland and the former President of the Law Council of Australia. Nigel subsequently was a delegate to the Gladstone Constitutional Convention in June 1999 and campaigned against the republic in the 1999 referendum.

Advisory Board

Michael Craig-Cooper

Member of the Advisory Board

Sir Michael served as Vice Lord Lieutenant of Greater London and has a distinguished career serving as a board member of the National Bank of Kuwait. He is a former director of the Westminster Forum and also serves as Honourary Secretary for the Pilgrims Society; a British-American affiliation promoting relations between the United States of America and the United Kingdom.

Stephen Klimczuk-Massion CANZUK

Stephen Klimczuk-Massion

Member of the Advisory Board

Stephen is a corporate strategist, scenario planner, board member, foundation director, published author and sometime Oxford University fellow. A Harvard MBA based on Vancouver Island, he currently serves as a Senior Adviser to one of the world’s largest management consultancies, where he was previously a Principal and head of its think tank for CEOs and Prime Ministers. Having worked on both sides of the Atlantic, Stephen started his career in consulting and investment banking at Bain & Company and Goldman Sachs, and later served as head of strategy for legendary investor Sir John Templeton’s main family philanthropy.

Derrick Gosselin

Special Adviser For EU Affairs

Derrick is a Belgian engineer and economist with deep links to EU institutions. He is currently Professor of international management and strategy at Ghent University and an Associate Fellow at the University of Oxford (Green Templeton College, Oxford Martin School). He is also Chairman of the European Corporate Security Association and Vice Chairman of NATO’s Von Karman Institute. He is former cabinet office secretary of the Flemish Prime Minister, former Chairman of the Belgian Advisers on Foreign Trade to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and former Chairman of the Euro-ASEAN commission of UNICE.

The Rt Hon. The Lord Johnson of Lainston CBE

Member of the Advisory Board

Lord Johnson is a member of the UK House of Lords and a founding partner and Chief Executive of Somerset Capital Management. Prior to starting Somerset Capital, he was director of marketing at Lloyd George Management and previously at Robert Fleming and Jardine Fleming in Hong Kong. In 2009 he was appointed associate treasurer of the Conservative Party, chairing the Party’s Business and Entrepreneur’s forum and in 2016 was appointed Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party with special responsibility for business engagement and the Party’s finances. He graduated from Durham University in 1995.

John Petrie CANZUK

John Petrie OBE

Special Adviser for Commonwealth Affairs

John is Windsor Herald at the College of Arms, the heraldic authority for most of the Commonwealth realms. He is also a Councillor of the City of London and serves as an Adviser to the Governor-General of Antigua and Barbuda. He previously worked as a Senior Adviser at the Bank of England and served as the UK’s representative on the Statistics Committee of the European Central Bank.

Andrew Lilico

Senior Economics Adviser

Andrew is a Principal at Europe Economics, a Fellow of the Institute of Economic Affairs, Chairman of the IEA Monetary Policy Committee and was Chairman of Economists for Britain at Vote Leave during the 2016 EU Referendum. At Europe Economics, he has worked extensively on major finance and regulatory questions, including for clients such as the European Commission, UK government departments and industry associations. He is a frequent contributor in the UK and international media on economic and financial matters, including on programmes such as Newsnight, the Today Programme, Sky News, CNBC and Bloomberg.

Noel Cox

Member of the Advisory Board

Noel is a Barrister and an Anglican Priest in New Zealand. He was formerly Professor of Law and was Head of Department of Law and Criminology at Aberystwyth University. His major field of research interest is aspects of the Crown, State, and sovereignty. His work has been published in the USA, the UK, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, Japan, New Zealand, and elsewhere. He has presented conference papers in many countries, and been a visiting fellow at the University of Cambridge (Wolfson and St Edmund’s Colleges) and The Australian National University. He is the author of 14 books and 150 other works.

Roy Eappen

Member of the Advisory Board

Roy is a specialist Physician based in Montreal, Canada and an assistant professor of Medicine at McGill University. He confounded the Reseau Liberte Quebec non-profit organization in 2010 and has been a long-time supporter of CANZUK. Roy is also a member of the Parti conservateur du Québec where he stood as a candidate in the 2022 provincial election.

The CANZUK International Team

Michelle Knight

Senior International Communications Director

Michelle is a senior copywriter and communications specialist, having worked for some of the world’s top companies including SAP, Telus, Vodafone and Sony. Originally from South Africa, she moved to Ireland where she served as a communications manager for a leading government initiative, and now resides in Kelowna, Canada.

Brent Cameron

Government Relations Advisor

Brent is a Senior Advisor with Concierge Strategies in Ontario, Canada and the author of “The Case for Commonwealth Free Trade: Options for a new globalization”. He is a Councillor and former Deputy Mayor of Central Frontenac in Ontario and has served in numerous political and research roles including Nanos Research and Commonwealth Advantage.

David Baker

Senior Communications Adviser for Australia

Originally from Canada, David is a history lecturer at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. He teaches and researches world history and science/humanities. David has also contributed to the curriculum funded by Bill Gates Catalyst 3 (bgC3), and is the writer of a crash course series seen by several million people. He has co-edited scholarly collections, and has published numerous academic works on broad trends in world history and interdisciplinarity.

Joshua Thomson

Senior Associate for Eastern Canada

Joshua has been a part of CANZUK International since its founding in 2015. He resides in his hometown of Saint John, New Brunswick on Canada’s East Coast and works for the Provincial Government. He has touched down in all of the CANZUK countries, having traveled to Australia and the UK and lived in New Zealand. Throughout his studies, he has specialized in communications and is an active volunteer in the historical field in Saint John. A published writer and public presenter, Joshua has great interest in the Commonwealth and the future developments of a CANZUK initiative as part of pro-Commonwealth public policy.

Rola Kamaleddine

Communications and Public Relations Officer

Rola is a Canadian public relations specialist originally from Edmonton, Alberta. In 2015, she moved to London, England where she worked in the press office of the Charity Commission for England and Wales. She is a contributor for Huffpost UK and has extensive experience in communications, external affairs and immigration permits/visas.

Deborah Wong

Senior Project Specialist

Deborah is a trained professional paralegal with over 10 years of project based experience in professional and volunteer roles. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, she specializes in resource management, website management, research and stakeholder relations with expertise in legal and political policy development. She is a graduate from the University of British Columbia and has extensive knowledge of public relations, communications and citizen engagement in numerous non-profit organizations.

Joshua Chohan

Senior Associate for the United Kingdom

Joshua is a university undergraduate and a former member of the Young Wales Project Board. He was one of the youngest candidates to stand for the county council of Monmouthshire in the 2017 local elections and now studies Public Services as part of his undergraduate degree. He is a firm believer in developing closer relations between Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom and believes it is a natural choice for the UK after Brexit.
Morgan Brobyn CANZUK

Morgan Brobyn

Senior Engagement Officer for the United Kingdom

Morgan is a public affairs and communications professional who sits on the board of several companies and a UK-based think-tank. He played a pivotal role for the Vote Leave campaign during the UK’s EU referendum in 2016, as well as having provided strategic communication advice for a number of election campaigns across the UK. He is also passionate about the UK’s key role in international trade, foreign policy, and defence.

Alex Kuziw

Senior Policy Advisor

Alex holds an MSc in EU Politics, specializing in International Relations of Europe at the London School of Economics. He also holds a HBA with distinction in Political Science at the University of Toronto, and as part of his studies, has written a dissertation on the economic relationship between Canada and the European Union. Since 2010, he has worked on many Canadian political campaigns, both at the provincial and federal level. He previously lived in London, UK for graduate school and now resides in Toronto, Canada.

Mathieu Lavault

Content Development Manager

Mat is from Dallas, Texas and currently studies Political Science at McGill University in Canada. He has served in numerous content creation roles, including Media Content Creator for the highly prestigious McGill International Review and Vice-President of Communications for the McGill Political Science Students’ Association. He hosts The CANZUK Podcast where he interviews MPs and experts on CANZUK relations, which can be listened to on YouTube, Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Emmett Mark

Youth Outreach Fellow

Emmett studies International Relations at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. He is undertaking studies in French, German and Russian, and is politically active on campus, serving as president of two political clubs alongside volunteering with various campaigns. He is passionate about politically engaging students and advancing the CANZUK movement’s momentum amongst young people.

Charles Marsh

Policy Analyst and Researcher

Charles is from Oxfordshire in England and holds an MSc in Global Politics and a Ba in Human Geography; both from the University of Southampton. As part of his studies he undertook modules ranging from Security Studies to Theories of International Relations, and his interests are primarily focused on international cooperation and integration. He writes for a range of advocacy campaigns, with a focus upon integration of nations.