Hichem is currently Director of Strategy and Corporate Services at the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre (NCCTRC), the government agency responsible for Australia’s health emergency response.
As the child of a French public servant and an Algerian Muslim mother who worked as a teacher and social worker, Hichem has developed a strong social conscience and a belief that respect and curiosity can reconcile people.
After his Masters in Management from the Ecole Superieure de Commerce de Paris (ESCP- Europe), Hichem worked in audit and mergers and acquisitions, before shifting to the not-for-profit sector in 2000. He first worked for the French Development Agency for five years, and then joined Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) from 2004 to 2006. During this period, he coordinated and evaluated development and emergency projects in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Hichem then returned to France as Deputy Director of a large social enterprise. In 2009, he came to Australia and continued his not-for-profit journey in structures supporting Indigenous health and employment, before joining the Global and Tropical Health division of Menzies School of Health Research.
In addition to his current role with the NCCTRC, Hichem is also a director of the board of MSF Australia, a representative of MSF Australia on several international platforms, and contributes to impact investment projects in France.
Hichem will use his Fulbright not-for-profit scholarship to spend four months at Harvard University and will establish a formal partnership between the NCCTRC and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. This partnership, as well as the existing partnership with the World Health Organisation, will position the NCCTRC and Northern Australia as the regional centre for health emergency response in the Asia-Pacific region.
Hichem will use his time at Harvard University to create new professional networks in the humanitarian field, to consolidate his humanitarian expertise and will study leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School.