Alina Bain is to become CEO of the Export Council of Australia (ECA), effective March 15.

She will be based in Sydney and succeed Lisa McAuley, who became executive director of the Global Trade Professionals Alliance (GTPA) in December and who has since been working for the ECA in a consultancy capacity.

The ECA is a member organisation representing the interests of Australian exporters. Among the functions it performs are training in international business, conducting international market research, lobbying for free trade and building global networks for Australian exporters.

Bain was most recently the chief executive of the Australian Services Roundtable, a body representing the services industry. She has previously held positions at the Australian Association of National Advertisers, Free TV Australia, Telstra and law firm Ashurst.

In her new role, she will report to Dianne Tipping, chair of the ECA, who describes the appointment as “fantastic”.

“I am confident Alina’s leadership of the ECA will add further strength to our organisation and benefit the members we serve,” Tipping says.

She praises the efforts of Lisa McAuley, who held the role since 2015. “Lisa has worked tirelessly to develop our offerings through encouraging Australian business to engage in international trade, effective representation to government on market access and facilitation issues, the delivery of practical professional development programmes and forums that foster the exchange of ideas and knowledge and reward excellence. This has been incredibly important work that means our new CEO will take over the reins of a strong organisation that is even better placed to represent the interests of the community and our members in this wonderful sector.”