Media Release: Josette Sheeran, President and CEO of Asia Society to visit Australia
SYDNEY, 8 February, 2016 ― Josette Sheeran, Global President and CEO of Asia Society will visit Australia from 24 to 26 February 2016. She will meet the Asia Society Australia leadership, members and partners and discuss the opportunities and challenges of the dynamic Asia-Pacific region with Australia’s political, business, academic and cultural leaders.
The visit marks the 60th anniversary of Asia Society and coincides with the expansion and transformation of Asia Society’s global agenda and new strategic directions for Asia Society Australia.
During her visit, Josette Sheeran will meet with The Hon Julie Bishop MP, Australia's Foreign Affairs Minister and Premier of Victoria The Hon. Daniel Andrews MP.
She will address the officers of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on diplomacy and humanitarianism. She will deliver a speech on China and its impact on the global order at the National Library of Australia, as part of the ground-breaking ‘Celestial Empire’ exhibition supported by Asia Society Australia, and formally opened by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on 6 February.
She will visit the University of Technology Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales and the National Gallery of Victoria to discuss collaboration between Asia Society and Australia’s cultural institutions.
In Sydney and Melbourne, Sheeran will brief Asia Society Australia members and leaders of Australia’s business, education and philanthropic communities on Asia Society’s rapidly expanding global mission across the disciplines of policy, business, education and culture.
Josette Sheeran is the seventh President and CEO of Asia Society. In the position, which she assumed in June 2013, she is responsible for leading and advancing the organisation's work throughout the U.S., Asia and Europe, across the disciplines of arts and culture, policy and business, and education.
Sheeran is the former Vice Chair of the World Economic Forum, which hosts the annual Davos and Davos in China gathering of world leaders. Prior to her tenure at the World Economic Forum, Sheeran was appointed by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan as executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme - the world's largest humanitarian organization, leading a team of 13,000 people in more than 70 countries, and managing an annual budget of more than $3 billion — including $1 billion in Asia. Sheeran has held senior positions in the U.S. government, including as U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business, and Agricultural Affairs, and five years as deputy U.S. trade representative, conducting negotiations across Asia, including with China, Australia, Singapore, India, Korea, and Japan.
In 2011, Forbes named Sheeran the world's 30th most powerful woman; Foreign Policy has listed her among its top 100 women on Twitter; and Sheeran's TED Talk on ending world hunger has been viewed more than one million times.
Sheeran is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She was awarded Japan's Niigata International Food Award; named Commandeur de l'Ordre du Mérite Agricole by the government of France; and received Brazil's highest civilian award, the Grand Official Order of the 'Rio Branco,' from President Lula Da Silva. Sheeran was also honored by the Huffington Post with its "Game Changer" award in 2011, along with Liberian President Ellen Sirleaf Johnson and economist Esther Duflo.
Enquiries to:
Philipp Ivanov
CEO, Asia Society Australia
(02) 8199 9402
[email protected]