Joel Blackwell

Joel Backwell is Policy and Urban Governance Lead at Regen Melbourne, where his focus is building the civic muscle of Melburnians and improving the way we inform and make decisions about our city. Joel is a long-term public servant and policy adviser, who has worked across multiple sectors including education, transport, planning, local government and trade and investment, most recently as Executive Director, Office for Suburban Development (Victoria).

Joel has spent much of his career living and working across Southeast Asia. Joel was previously Australia’s Trade Commissioner to Malaysia and Brunei and worked as a lawyer in Indonesia, including as a member of the Bali 9 legal defence team. He is author of Strengthening Australia’s Indonesia Literacy (2026), a report funded by DFAT’s Australia-Indonesia Institute, which informed the recommendations of the House Standing Committee on Education’s Report on Building Asia Capability in Australia.