OUR MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE

Kathryn Viegas

President

Kathryn Viegas is a Director of Nomos Legal and is an Accredited Specialist in Immigration Law. She has practised immigration law since 2003 and has been in the AFR’s annual Best Lawyers list since 2018. A migrant herself, Kathryn started her career at the HIV/AIDS Legal Centre before moving into private practice. Since 2007 she has been involved in continuing legal education through her preparation and presentation of CPD programs and since 2019 she has taught in the Graduate Diploma in Migration Law program at Victoria University. She has written several articles on Australian immigration law and was a contributing author for the 10th edition of The Immigration Kit.

Kathryn has volunteered at IARC throughout her career and joined the Management Committee in 2012. She also sits on the boards of Diverse Women in Law and the Centre for Women’s Economic Safety and is a founding Director of the TLR Foundation, established in memory of a former client to promote stem-cell donation in Australia.

Rowena Irish

Vice President & Secretary

Rowena joined IARC’s Management Committee following a long association with IARC which started as a caseworker. She has a passion for our work and is an immigration solicitor with more than twenty years’ experience at the highest levels of immigration law in a top-tier law firm. She is Co-Director of Supra Legal, a boutique immigration law firm, having returned to private practice after a five-year appointment as a Member of the Migration and Refugee Review Tribunal. She has previously been Acting Principal Solicitor and Director, Caseworker, and Publications Officer here at IARC.

Rowena is an accredited trainer with the Migration Institute of Australia and has been in the AFR annual Best Lawyers list for the last three years. She was co-author of the 8th and 10th Editions of The Immigration Kit, editor and co-author of Immigration News, and has presented a wide range of CPDs, training sessions, and conference papers.

Lina Tchung 

Treasurer

Lina joined IARC’s Management Committee as the Treasurer in November 2018. She is an experienced director and Chartered Accountant with extensive experience across finance, audit, risk and governance.

Lina spent 17 years at EY in the financial services assurance practice before joining Macquarie as a Division Director in Internal Audit. She is also a non-executive director of YWCA Australia and a member of its Finance, Audit and Risk Committee.

With time as her precious commodity, Lina carves her time between her family and friends, her work as an auditor, and giving back to the community. Lina strongly supports the core services IARC provides to help vulnerable people navigate Australian immigration law. She draws on her family’s strength and experience when they had to navigate their way through these pathways after fleeing East Timor in the mid-1970s.

Guilio Katis 

Committee Member

Giulio Katis is a Financial Markets professional with an academic background in mathematics and computer science. He is the Managing Director of Westpac’s Financial Markets Digital, Analytics and Systematic Trading unit. Prior to joining Westpac, he worked at Barclays Global Investors (BGI) as a Portfolio Manager, Strategist and Senior Researcher. Before moving to the world of finance, Giulio held research fellow roles at the University of Sydney and at l’Università degli Studi dell’Insubria (Como, Italy), developing mathematical models to assist in the design and reasoning about distributed systems. He has a PhD in Pure Mathematics from Sydney University. Giulio has interests in the transformational implications of conceptual, logical, and physical technologies, especially as these pertain to the relationship between individuals and society. Giulio is married to Vicki and has three young daughters. Though born in Australia, he comes from a migrant family background.   

David Nguyen

Committee Member

David was elected to the IARC’s Management Committee in July 2022. He is a lawyer specialising in government commercial law at the NSW Crown Solicitor’s Office and was previously Associate to Justice Gageler of the High Court of Australia. He also sits on a Legal Aid Review Committee and was previously the Secretary of Brand X Productions, a medium-sized arts charity. David joined the IARC to contribute to our delivery of legal services to some of the most vulnerable members of the community.

Kittu Randhawa

Committee Member

Kittu joined IARC’s Management Committee in July 2022. She is the founder of the Indian (Sub-Cont) Crisis & Support Agency (ICSA), the first NGO for the South Asian Communities in Australia. She is also the CEO of Community Resource Network, a local sector peak body in Western Sydney advocating to alleviate poverty and disadvantage.

Kittu has become a powerful voice advocating for marginalised and isolated women who are new to Australia. She advocates for women traumatised by their experiences of violence and coercion, often with little education or skills to navigate complex social and legal systems. She is a tireless advocate on behalf of culturally and linguistically diverse women in Australia.