Kevin Rudd

The Honorable Dr. Kevin Rudd A.C. is a leading international authority on China. He currently serves as Global President and CEO of Asia Society in New York. Dr. Rudd returned to lead Asia Society in March 2026 following three years as Australia’s Ambassador to the United States under the Trump and Biden Administrations. He previously served as Australia's 26th Prime Minister from 2007 to 2010 and as Foreign Minister from 2010 to 2012, before returning as Prime Minister in 2013. Asia Society was established in 1956 and now operates across 16 centers with more than 250 staff around the world. Dr. Rudd is also Founding President of the Asia Society Policy Institute, a "think-and-do tank" focused on global engagement with Asia, and the Founding Chair of its Center for China Analysis. He has published two books on China and U.S.-China relations, On Xi Jinping (2024) and The Avoidable War (2022). Dr. Rudd is proficient in Mandarin Chinese, having graduated in Chinese language and history from the Australian National University. In 2022 he was awarded his DPhil from Oxford University for his dissertation on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ideological worldview. Over the years, he has been extensively cited on China, appearing frequently on U.S. network and cable television and the BBC. He has written extensively in the international print media including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and The Financial Times, and across the major outlets in India, Japan, France, Germany and across Europe. Most recently, he appeared on Ezra Klein's podcast to discuss Xi Jinping, and on Gideon Rachman's podcast to discuss U.S.-China relations.

As Prime Minister, Dr. Rudd steered Australia through the Global Financial Crisis. As the only major developed economy not to go into recession, he was recognized by the IMF as having led the world’s most effective stimulus response. As Prime Minister, he was a co‑founderof the G20 Summit. He drove changes in Indo-Pacific regional strategic architecture, UN reform and global climate change action. Domestically, he has been a leading force in Indigenous reconciliation and education and health reform. 

Most recently as Ambassador to the U.S., he was instrumental in negotiating the 2025 U.S.-Australia Critical Minerals Framework with the U.S. Administration. He also worked to conclude a major bilateral Technology for Prosperity Agreement in 2026 to underpin the delivery of billions of dollars in U.S. investment in the Australian AI and technology sector. Dr. Rudd also helped secure bipartisan congressional and presidential support for the trilateral AUKUS security partnership to underpin the purchase and construction of a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines for the Royal Australian Navy. 

Dr. Rudd has addressed the leading U.S. military institutions on deterrence, China and Taiwan, including U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM), the U.S. Army War College, U.S. Naval Academy, U.S. Naval War College, U.S. Air Force Academy, as well as the National Defense University in Washington, D.C.. He has also delivered public lectures at the world’s leading universities on China including Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Brown, Yale, the University of Pennsylvania including The Wharton School, Stanford, UC San Diego and UC Los Angeles, as well as internationally at Oxford, Cambridge, and the London School of Economics.

Dr. Rudd is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center at the Harvard Kennedy School. He holds honorary positions at other major institutions including the Atlantic Council; the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington; the Paulson Institute in Chicago; Chatham House in London; the Chancellor Helmut Schmidt Foundation in Berlin; Sciences Po and the Friends of Paris Agreement in Paris; the Museum of Australian Democracy in Canberra; and the Stephen A. Schwarzman Education Foundation. He is co-chair of the National Apology Foundation, an Australian charity focused on Indigenous reconciliation, and a trustee of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City.

Dr. Rudd started his diplomatic career in 1981 with postings to Beijing and Stockholm. In 1989 he was appointed Chief-of-Staff to the Premier of the state of Queensland and became Director-General of the Cabinet Office from 1991 to 1995. He also worked in the private sector for KPMG from 1996 to 1998 working on Australian investment projects in China. He was elected to the Australian Parliament in 1998, becoming Shadow Foreign Minister in 2001 and then Leader of the Opposition in 2006. He graduated with Honors in Chinese language and East Asian history from the Australian National University in 1981 and also studied Mandarin at National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei. 

In 2019, Dr. Rudd was awarded Australia’s highest honor, the Companion of the Order of Australia, for eminent service to Indigenous reconciliation, for innovative economic initiatives during the Global Financial Crisis and other major domestic policy reforms during his term in office. 

Kevin married Thérèse Rein in 1981 and they have three children and three grandchildren.