Kevin Rudd

Kevin Rudd is the Australian ambassador to the United States. He served as Australia’s 26th prime minister from 2007 to 2010, then as minister for foreign affairs, and then a second term as prime minister in 2013. He was a member for Griffith in the Australian Parliament from 1998 to 2013.

Since leaving government, Rudd has resided in the United States, where he is recognised as a leading analyst of China. In 2014, he joined the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs as a resident scholar on U.S.-China relations. 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, 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. He holds honorary positions at eminent institutions around the world.

Rudd started his diplomatic career in 1981 with postings to Beijing and Stockholm. In 1988, he was appointed chief of staff to Wayne Goss, the 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. Rudd graduated with honors in Asian studies from the Australian National University and received his Ph.D. from Oxford University in 2022. He also studied at National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei. Rudd is accompanied on his posting by his wife, Thérèse Rein.