American Chamber of Commerce leaders on building global connections

Saturday, 01 February 2025

Deborah Tarrant photo
Deborah Tarrant
Journalist
    Current

    As Donald Trump returns to the White House, AmCham chair Larry Marshall FAICD and CEO April Palmerlee see fresh opportunity for Australian business.


    Former CSIRO CEO Larry Marshall FAICD became chair of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Australia in 2022. April Palmerlee has been the organisation’s CEO since 2017 and chair of AmChams of the Asia Pacific since 2022. Both are dual citizens who saw numerous opportunities when the US faced a contentious election last November. With President Trump back in the Oval Office, they’re forging ahead with a growth strategy that has radically changed the size and scope of one of the world’s biggest AmChams to deliver greater value to members on both sides of the Pacific.

    Larry Marshall FAICD

    Transition to Trump

    To us, the US election presented an opportunity to innovate. Keeping in mind, it’s super important for AmCham to be apolitical. In the transition to the new administration, highlighting the value in the Australia-US relationship is crucial. Any administration wants to see a return on what they do, and we know Donald Trump is a businessman. People seem to be focused on what could go wrong, but I don’t believe things will change as much as they might think.

    Equally, we need to maintain the benefits that AmCham’s lobbied for over the years, easier access for defence exports through the ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) and concessions for Australian companies through the IRA (Inflation Reduction Act 2022).

    Trump’s been largely responsible for turning up the heat on China. That gives Australia a unique opportunity to take advantage of its carve-outs on the CHIPS and Science Act (intended to bring microchip manufacturing back to the US) and the IRA to help the US rebuild its value chains, by transitioning from pure commodities to making sub-components for the US semiconductor and battery industries.

    In the post-election landscape, Australian companies need to look for opportunities to grow, look around the corner to see how you might be disrupted, but how the exponential technologies being power-housed out of the US might be of benefit to you.

    The chair’s POV

    My first impression of April, when I was at CSIRO and went to AmCham events, was that she had massive potential. I could see AmCham was growing and doing well under her leadership.

    I was excited when I became chair (in December 2022) because I could see opportunities to make AmCham bigger, broader and more bi-directional — to balance the flow of two-way benefits between Australia and the US. The US is huge and we’re tiny, so the natural benefits of the relationship accrued more the one way. Historically, the association was about defence, which is an incredibly strong pillar. Aukus (trilateral security partnership between Australia, UK and US) is a fabulous example of the collaboration.

    Part of the shift was sharpening the focus on innovation and broadening the membership beyond big companies to smaller ones and startups, which we now have, both from Australia and the US. In this age of disruption and disintermediation, AmCham is uniquely placed to help Australian organisations understand exponential technologies like AI, quantum and synthetic biology — and to develop their ability to see around corners so they can see market shifts before they happen. I spent more than 25 years living and working in the US, and I think US companies are just better at seeing the future.

    April has been an enthusiastic and vital proponent for all of these changes. To look at the whole relationship getting bigger and more valuable, we needed KPIs and metrics in place to measure the Australia-US relationship, so we could quantify its value over time. She certainly set herself some ambitious KPIs, with plans to double the value of the relationship by the end of this decade.

    Lines of communication

    April’s a first-time CEO and I’ve been a CEO, but this is my first time as chair. I learned a lot watching David Thodey AO FAICD when he took up the CSIRO chair role, after he was Telstra CEO. I told April, “You’ll have to remind me when I’m stepping in your patch”. She does, occasionally.

    What stood out for me straight away is that April has amazing instincts. She’s not afraid to ask tough questions or to stare into a challenge. We communicate at a minimum of every two weeks but there are a lot of emails and texts in between. If she needs to jump on a call, she’s pretty persistent.

    Some CEOs just focus on the good stuff. There’s nothing more annoying as a chair than finding out about a problem after it’s happened — when if you’d known about it before, you could have leaned in and helped.

    If April thinks she’s made a mistake, she’s incredibly good about calling me straight away to say, “I screwed up, what do I do?” I don’t need to tell her. She’s been quick to learn the innovation lesson about making a decision, measuring the result and pivoting until you get it right.

    While April is busy running the day-to-day operations of AmCham, I see the board’s role as looking out for disruptions and the future. The chair can remind the CEO not to get too blinkered. It’s incumbent on us to help her see what’s coming.

    $1170b —Total value of US investment in Australia in 2023

    323,000 — Australians work in high-level jobs for over 1000 US-owned companies in Australia

    7 per cent — Percentage of GDP from Australian exports to US and income from US investment in Australia

    April Palmerlee

    Transition to Trump

    As we saw it, any post-election change in the US administration strengthened AmCham’s position, because our members would need to know who the new players are and get information on programs and potential tariff changes. Our members welcomed the election result because it was definitive and fast.

    The election of Donald Trump looks set to drive investment, which will affect our member businesses through increased mergers and acquisitions activity, and plans to cut red tape and to lower the US corporate tax rate of 21 per cent, with suggestions that it may go even lower.

    For the chamber specifically, that means more programs, more members, more opportunities to engage with the current administrations in America and Australia — and our work also flows into the overall trade and investment relationship.

    The CEO’s POV

    Even before he joined the board, Larry was a great speaker for AmCham. I was always excited to see what he’d pull out of his briefcase, his bag of tricks with props of some of the great CSIRO inventions.

    When he accepted the chair role, I was flattered on behalf of the chamber. It highlighted the importance of the Australia-US relationship, that someone of his stature — a scientist, founder, author, venture capitalist — would take on the position. I was intrigued to see how it would change the chamber and grow our numbers.

    Geopolitics, COVID and technology had caused a lot of disruption in the global market. US Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy had recently taken up her role and become our patron, and Larry’s arrival coincided with a push for growth. We’d just opened our sixth office, in the ACT, our trade mission programs were expanding and we were adapting.

    As a former CEO, Larry had a strong understanding of what I would need from the outset and he was keen to help me, both as a mentor and as a confidant.

    It’s not only my first CEO role, I’m also the first female CEO of AmCham, the first aged under 50 and the first dual citizen. Larry and I share in common that we’ve lived in both countries for extensive periods of time. We understand the ethos, culture and values of each country, and the nuances that make them different.

    When you read about Larry, you think, “What am I going to get here?” He’s incredibly intelligent and accomplished and, in the most wonderful Australian way, completely humble, down to earth and accessible.

    I love the way he runs board meetings. He doesn’t just ask a lot of questions. He makes it easy for everyone to put their views forward, be heard and contribute. It’s a free-flowing conversation between management and the board. He’s also very empathetic to my needs, understands the kinds of questions I’ll be facing, what I want to highlight, the feedback I need. He’s almost one step ahead.

    Widening representation

    Larry identified that we needed to be much more intentional about the chamber’s bi-directional emphasis, because there was a misperception — including by me when I started — that it was only about big American multinationals. With him has come an exciting focus on innovation, with a lot more interest from tech startups, venture capital and private equity, and the technologies driving the Australia-US relationship.

    We’re now one of the world’s biggest AmChams, with 600 company members representing two million individuals. The value of the partnership is reflected in our 50 per cent membership growth. We’ve almost doubled the value we create (measured through the triple bottom line, economic, societal and environmental).

    A highlight was our collaboration with the Tech Council of Australia last September, just ahead of the election. In a joint week-long trip led by Larry and (Tech Council and Tesla chair) Robyn Denholm MAICD, we took members (of both organisations) to meet with business leaders in Silicon Valley and Austin, Texas, in the US.

    We see further future opportunities on the way in energy production, critical minerals and defence tech with the Aukus agreement for nuclear submarines and enabling technologies. Our advocacy work can help companies grow despite geopolitical disruption rewriting business lines and supply chains.

    We’ve just commissioned research to show the growth in the Australia-US relationship over the 20 years of the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement and already know trade has doubled and investment trebled since 2005. I see more positives on the way, both through Larry’s influence and the big picture.

    This article first appeared under the headline ‘Hands across the ocean’ in the February 2025 issue of Company Director magazine. 

    Latest news

    This is of of your complimentary pieces of content

    This is exclusive content.

    You have reached your limit for guest contents. The content you are trying to access is exclusive for AICD members. Please become a member for unlimited access.