Thom Woodroofe

Thom Woodroofe is the Senior Advisor on Multilateral Affairs to the President of the Asia Society Policy Institute, The Honorable Kevin Rudd AC. Among other responsibilities, Thom oversees a major political project focussed on future US-China climate cooperation.

Prior to this, Thom worked as an Associate Director at Independent Diplomat, a non-profit diplomatic advisory firm supporting some of the world’s most marginalized countries and political actors. In this role, Thom helped the Marshall Islands play a key role in securing the Paris Agreement on climate change including through acting as an advisor to the country’s President and Foreign Minister, and then also led the firm’s work with Rohingya politicians and refugees from Myanmar.

Thom has published more than 100 opinion pieces with the ABC, The Guardian, The Australian, Fairfax newspapers, and The South China Morning Post, among others. As the founder of two national organizations in Australia, Thom has previously been recognized as a Young Victorian of the Year. He is also a regular participant in the Australian American Leadership Dialogue.

Thom holds a BA (Global) from Monash University where he graduated with the Sir John Monash Medal; First Class Honours and a Master of International Relations from the University of Melbourne where he is the recipient of an alumni award; and a Master of Diplomacy from Oxford where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar and also produced a forthcoming book on new models of diplomatic activism from a longer dissertation.