Richard Andrews was appointed CEO of the Australia Japan Business Co-operation Committee in March 2021 following a career of more than thirty years as an Australian diplomat. During that time he served overseas in Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo (twice), London, and as Ambassador in Dublin (2016-2020). He was responsible for Australia’s successful stakeholder engagement strategy for the G20 Summit in Brisbane in 2014.
Richard was a Visiting Fellow at the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University from March 2020 to September 2021, focusing on the potential for building trade in renewable energy, notably low-carbon hydrogen, between Australia and the region.
Richard has a long-standing interest in Japan and Australia-Japan relations, having first started learning Japanese at the age of 11. He was an exchange student in Kobe for a year in 1982, and majored in Japanese for his BA (Hons) at the University of Sydney. As Executive Director of DFAT’s Economic Analytical Unit in 2008, Richard directed and co-authored a major published report on the bilateral commercial relationship.
