Asialink Group CEO, Martine Letts, is delighted to announce the formal appointment of Dr Sarah Richardson to the position of Executive Director of Asia Education Foundation.
With 30 years’ experience in international education, Sarah brings a wealth of experience to AEF. Sarah started her career with 12 years as a teacher, working with both corporate employees and international students in The Netherlands and Australia. Building on a BA in Human Geography (Liverpool) and MA in International Relations (Amsterdam), Sarah obtained a PhD from the University of Melbourne. Her doctoral thesis focused on cosmopolitan education – looking into the extent to which local and international students at Australian universities engaged with each other, and the potential for building better global competence. A book based on her thesis was published by Routledge in 2016 and has subsequently been translated into Farsi.
From 2010 to 2023, Sarah worked for the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), as a Research Director in Australia and Deputy CEO of ACER in the United Kingdom. She spent three years as Research Director in the New Delhi office of ACER, building a research profile and implementing projects in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan.
Sarah has extensive experience leading large, globally dispersed and diverse teams, and successfully managing relationships with a wide array of stakeholders. She has led teams to implement major projects for the World Bank, UNICEF, the International Baccalaureate, the British Council, DFAT, the Department of Education, the OECD and numerous national and state governments. Most recently, Sarah was the Assessment Operations Manager and head of international liaison for the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2025 cycle, working to support teams in 92 countries. In March 2023 she led a team to implement what the OECD referred to as the “best PISA National Project Manager meeting ever”.
Sarah lives on 6 acres in Queensland where she has a menagerie of animals including goats and chickens. She is rehabilitating the land by planting trees and other native vegetation and encouraging native wildlife. In her free time, Sarah is a volunteer firefighter with the Rural Fire Service and rescues and rehabilitates wildlife. She has held volunteer positions wherever she has lived. An avid photographer, Sarah spends her annual leave in far flung parts of the globe photographing wild animals and exploring with her backpack.