Rod Commerford

Rod commenced his role as Austrade’s Trade and Investment Commissioner Jakarta in 2021. His role is to grow Australia’s goods and services trade to Indonesia with particular focus on Education, Defence and two way investment.

Prior to Jakarta, Rod spent more than four years based in Seoul, leading Austrade’s teams in Korea and Mongolia. A significant focus of his role was to grow Australia’s share of Korean foreign direct investment and also diversifying the trade relationship. Rod’s experience in the region began a decade earlier where in 2010, he was responsible for laying the foundations to establish Austrade’s first office in Mongolia.

Since commencing with Austrade in January 2008, Rod has held a variety of roles in both trade and investment and has experience across multiple sectors. These include Team Leader, Transport and Multilateral projects, where he assisted Australian Infrastructure companies’ grow in international markets. Senior Export Adviser roles in agribusiness, resources, food and beverage. And Investment Adviser roles in infrastructure, energy and agricultural, where he worked with international companies to attract productive foreign direct investment into Australia.

Prior to joining Austrade, Rod has over 12 years’ experience working in international trade focussed roles at Alcoa and Holden, expanding their export business units. Rod has considerable experience in trade with Asia and the Middle East.

Rod holds a Bachelor of Business (Economics) from Victoria University in Melbourne. In 2010 Rod completed the Asialink Leaders program through the University of Melbourne.