Description

You are invited to a special 8 a.m. Monday ETEC meeting featuring The Hon Dr. Kevin Rudd AC, Australian Ambassador to U.S. and Former Prime Minister of Australia.

Please make plans to join us either in person or online Monday, February 10, 2025, 8:00-9:00 a.m. in the UT Outreach Center. 

Click here for more details and here for the Zoom link.

No registration is necessary for in-person attendance. 

For more information about ETEC’s weekly meetings, click here. 

Visit the Find Us page for the meeting location, address, and map.

Ambassador

HE the Hon Dr Kevin Rudd AC, Australia's Ambassador to the United States

His Excellency, the Honourable Dr Kevin Rudd AC, (Companion of the Order of Australia) is Australia’s Ambassador to the United States of America, taking up his posting in Washington in March 2023.

Ambassador Rudd served as Australia’s twenty-sixth Prime Minister from 2007 to 2010, then as Minister for Foreign Affairs, before a second term as Prime Minister in 2013. He was Member for Griffith in the Australian Parliament from 1998 to 2013.

Since leaving government, Ambassador Rudd has resided in the United States where he is recognised as a leading analyst of China. In 2015, he became inaugural President of the Asia Society Policy Institute in New York. In 2020, he was appointed President and CEO of the Asia Society globally and, in 2022, he founded the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis.

In 2019, Ambassador Rudd was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia for eminent service to Indigenous reconciliation, innovative economic initiatives, and major policy reform, and through senior advisory roles with international organisations. Ambassador Rudd holds honorary positions at the Atlantic Council and Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC; the Asia Society, Schwartzman Scholars and Bloomberg New Economy Forum in New York; the Paulson Institute in Chicago; the Paris School of International Affairs at Sciences Po in Paris, France; the Chancellor Helmut Schmidt Foundation in Hamburg, Germany; and Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House in Canberra. He is founder and co-chair of an Australian charity, the National Apology Foundation, and a trustee of the Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York City.

Ambassador Rudd started his diplomatic career in 1981 with postings to Beijing and Stockholm. In 1988, he was appointed Chief of Staff to the Hon Wayne Goss and served him as Premier of Queensland. He was Director-General of the Cabinet Office in Queensland from 1991 to 1995, and Senior China Consultant for KPMG from 1996 to 1998.

Ambassador Rudd graduated with Honours in Asian Studies from the Australian National University and received his PhD from Oxford University in 2022. He also studied at National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei.

Ambassador Rudd is accompanied on his posting by his wife, Thérèse Rein.