Brent Thomas has been appointed as Airbnb’s regional policy director for Asia-Pacific, taking over from Mike Orgill who is now Airbnb’s general manager for South-east Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Thomas has been with Airbnb since 2016 and was most recently head of public policy for Australia, New Zealand, India and South-east Asia. In this role, Thomas worked with policymakers to develop fair, 21st century regulations that now cover more than 70 per cent of the Airbnb community in Australia.
He was also responsible for developing partnerships with a range of government and non-government organisations, including Emergency Management Victoria, Maharashtra Tourism, the New Zealand Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management and United Voice – the union that supports cleaning workers in Australia.
Prior to joining Airbnb, Thomas held senior policy and corporate affairs roles in the banking and technology sectors, including vice president, public policy and corporate affairs at Mastercard; head of corporate affairs at eBay; and chief of staff to the managing director of PayPal Australia.
