Our Team

Jamal Hakim

Jamal Hakim is a committed community representative with a proven track record in advocating for community well-being, accessibility, and local business support. He has been a resident of Docklands and the City for over a decade and is passionate about ensuring a thriving community across all our neighbourhoods that is physically, emotionally, culturally and environmentally safe for everyone.

A current City of Melbourne councillor, Jamal is the Lead for the Creative Melbourne portfolio, and Deputy Lead for the City Activation portfolio as well as the Health, Wellbeing and Belonging portfolio. He is also Co-Chair of the Disability Advisory Committee, and a member of the Audit, Finance and Risk Committee and the Homelessness Advisory Committee.

After a successful executive career, Jamal runs his own consulting business and is on the board of Democracy in Colour. He was previously on the board of Midsumma Festival, and Chair of the Finance Risk and Audit Committee for ASHM.

His vision for Melbourne is one where every community member feels engaged and valued, and where the city’s future is shaped by the people who live in it, because it’s all our Melbourne.

Esther Anatolitis

Esther has lived and worked in the City of Melbourne for over twenty years, where she’s achieved significant national and international impact.

She’s no stranger to good governance and public debate: Esther is Editor of Meanjin, Australia’s journal of record; a National Gallery of Australia Governing Councillor; Co-Chair of the Australian Republic Movement; and Hon A/Prof at RMIT School of Art.

Esther has been CEO of Express Media, the Emerging Writers Festival (of which she was a founder), Craft Victoria, SYN Media 90.7FM, Regional Arts Victoria, and Melbourne Fringe, where her festivals broke artist and attendance records and won state and national tourism awards.

She’s taught at all of the city’s universities, worked with Council on cultural strategy and policy, and has worked extensively in urban and regional planning.

Esther’s also one of Melbourne’s best-known Greek-Australians: if elected, she will make history as the first Greek-Australian Deputy Lord Mayor of the largest Hellenic city outside of Greece.

Michael Smith

Michael Smith is a long time local resident, small business owner and architect who is running to get better design and planning outcomes for the City of Melbourne. He has been a leading advocate for good buildings, streets, and cities for over two decades.

In 2013 Michael joined the broad community campaign to protect Melbourne’s premier green space Royal Park from the proposed East West Link toll road. This project would have been irrevocably damaging to the Trin Warren Tam-Boore wetland, Whites Skink Habitat and Ross Straw Field.

Michael was also a member of the Citizens For Melbourne Association that ran the successful Our City Our Square Campaign. This community led campaign saved Melbourne’s most iconic piece of contemporary architecture, Federation Square, from an Apple store redevelopment.

With a love of community volunteering, Michael has made extensive contributions to reputable organisations such as St John Ambulance Australia, the National Mathematics Summer School and the Australian Institute of Architects.

Michael’s architectural practice andever is based in Carlton and is known for having a generosity of design spirit. As a leading thinker on cities and architecture and he has written extensively about city design and architecture including a series of award winning opinion pieces for The Age newspaper.

Michael is enthusiastic to utilise his professional expertise and community values to serve the people of Melbourne.

Lawrence Lam

Lawrence is Managing Director of Lumenary Investment Management, a specialist global equities investment firm he founded in 2017. Lumenary specialises in investing in globally listed founder-led companies with a long runway for growth.

He is highly regarded in the investments industry, having over 18 years of experience in financial markets, and worked in funds management, investment banking, consulting, and financial regulation. Lawrence is a regular writer for investment magazines including Money Management, Livewire and the Australian Investors Association, and is a presenter at investment conferences. He has appeared on several podcasts including Equity Mates and The Australian Investors Podcast.

In addition to his role at Lumenary, Lawrence is an Executive Committee member of the Australia China Business Council (ACBC) and Chair of the ACBC’s Future Leaders Forum, a sub-committee he co-founded in 2017. Lawrence enjoys building and growing businesses, with achievements including co-founding the not-for-profit ‘Share the Pie’, and W Legal, a law firm he co-founded in 2011 and subsequently sold in 2023.

Lawrence has lived, studied and worked in the City of Melbourne since 2007, and is currently a proud resident of West Melbourne.

Lawrence’s qualifications:

Executive Education – Scenario Planning (Columbia Business School)
Executive Leadership Program (McKinsey & Company)
Master of Applied Finance (The University of Melbourne)
Graduate Diploma in Corporations and Securities Law (The University of Melbourne)
Bachelor of Commerce (Actuarial Science) (The University of Melbourne)

Judy Gao

Judy is an influential innovative strategist in community development and advocacy on multicultural and international affairs. A dynamic woman in leadership in board governance, with strategic communications and engagement and financial management expertise working in public sector, not for profit and sport.

Judy is a Docklands resident and have been living in Melbourne for over a decade. She is a proud Melbournian and she is determined to make it a better place to be for all.

Judy is the first female and Asian heritage Board Member of the AFL Asia Advisory Board, expanding AFL community clubs in over 20 Asian countries. Judy also serves as Board Chair and CEO of the Australia-China Young Professionals Initiative (ACYPI), the single largest NFP organisation for young professionals and entrepreneurs in Australia-China relations. She is also the founding executive Board Director of Executive Wealth Circle Australia Community Engagement Inc, connecting Asian Australian entrepreneurs with the broader community. As a re-elected CPA Victoria Divisional Councillor for a consecutive two terms of six years, Judy has been serving and representing almost 40,000 CPA Victoria members.

Judy's multifaceted skill set, coupled with her passion for advocating for multiculturalism and Australia-Asia relations, makes her a highly respected and influential figure within both the local and global communities. Earned state endorsements from Victoria’s Ministers on her board and multicultural intelligence and received global recognition at the Asia Society Asia Game Changer Awards and Australia China Alumni Awards 2023!