About this event 

ANU alumni and friends are invited to an exclusive webinar featuring Australia’s Ambassador to the United States, H.E. the Hon. Dr. Kevin Rudd AC, 2023 ANU Alum of the Year.

Dr. Rudd will be joined by Professor John Blaxland, Director of the ANU North American Liaison Office, and ANU alum Helen Zhang, for an engaging discussion on the Australia-US alliance.

Gain valuable insights into key global partnerships shaping diplomacy, including AUKUS, the QUAD, and other major developments from Washington.

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to hear from one of the University’s most distinguished alumni on topics influencing Australia and the world.

Speakers

• H.E. the Hon. Dr. Kevin Rudd AC BA (Asian Studies) (Hons) '81, HonLLD '16 is Australia's Ambassador to the United States of America. He 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. 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, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia. Ambassador Rudd holds a PhD from Oxford University and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from the Australian National University.

• • Professor John Blaxland (MA'98) is Director of the ANU North American Liaison Office and Professor of International Security and Intelligence Studies in the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre (SDSC), Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, College of Asia and the Pacific at the ANU. He is the author of numerous books on military history, intelligence and international security issues, including Revealing Secrets: An Unofficial History of Australian Signals Intelligence and the Advent of Cyber (UNSW Press, 2023). He also has served as Head of SDSC and Director of the ANU Southeast Asia Institute. Prior to joining academia, John spent two and a half decades on various postings as an Australian Army intelligence officer.

• Helen Zhang B Asian Studies (Specialist) ’10, LLB (Hons) ’10, GDLP ’11 was the 2017 ANU Young Alumna of the Year, and she is currently based in Washington, DC. Helen is the co-founder of Intrigue Media, which produces expert but irreverent briefings on global affairs issues at the intersection of geopolitics, tech, and business, and also works on venture philanthropy as the Deputy Chief of Staff in the Office of Eric Schmidt. Helen is a 2020 Fulbright Scholar and Master in Public Administration graduate from the Harvard Kennedy School, where she specialized in geo-tech policies. She's an ex-Googler, Australian diplomat, negotiator, Mandarin interpreter, lawyer, and public speaker. Helen is also a Non-Resident Fellow in Emerging Technology at Sydney University's US Studies Center.