Our People

Mr. Funston is an experienced former lawyer and manager. Recently retired, his previous roles included that of Senior Lawyer and Manager at GRC Solutions; Senior Lawyer with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission; and, Coordinator of the then Consumer Credit Legal Centre (NSW) Inc. Michael has expertise in areas including corporate governance, charities law, and community management and regulation. His qualifications include LLB, LLM and a Master of Arts degree.

Ms. Petschler has extensive experience in public policy, government, advocacy and executive roles. She was CEO of the Customer Owned Banking Association – the national association representing banking institutions with more than $90 billion in assets under management. She also worked for consumer rights group, Choice and is currently General Manager, Advocacy at the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She holds a graduate degrees from UNSW.

Born in Afghanistan, Dr Bilquis Ghani is currently a Lecturer in Arts at Canberra University. Her previous roles have included Head of Inclusion at the Sydney Opera House, and working with University of Technology Sydney’s Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion. Bilquis’s social justice background spans beyond formal institutions and forms an integral part of her life. She is co-founder and lead for Hunar Symposia, a collective of academics and artists creating spaces of discourse and collaboration between practice and theory. Bilquis’s PhD employed a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to understand how cultural products can be deployed to reconceptualize gender and identity in conflict zones, namely, Kabul, Afghanistan.

Mahir is an internationally renowned development sector expert with vast international experience in Canada, Australia and Afghanistan. He has previously worked for the United Nations, the World Bank and served as a senior Financial Advisor to the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs of the Government of Afghanistan. Mahir grew up in a large and hardworking family. He arrived in Australia as a refugee, with a strong passion for improving the daily lives of those still suffering in his war-torn home country. Through his established network of professionals in Afghanistan, Mahir has been able to grow the Foundation with a significant amount of volunteer and community support. Mahir sits on the HADIA Foundation’s board as are the three other directors listed in the page that follows.