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His Excellency Mr William Paterson PSM Australian Ambassador to the Kingdom of Thailand
Prior to becoming Ambassador to Thailand at the time of the December 2004 tsunami disaster, Mr Paterson was Head of the Southeast Asia division in the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. In 2002-03 he was Head of the government’s Iraq Task Force. He was Head of the International Security Division in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra in 2001-02. The division is principally responsible for strategic policy and politico-military affairs. Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, he was appointed chair of the government’s Anti-Terrorism Task Force.
During 2000, he served as Chief of Staff and Principal Adviser to the Foreign Minister. In 1998-99, he served as Assistant Secretary in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, advising and supporting the Prime Minister on Asia, APEC and trade policy issues, including policy toward Indonesia, the East Timor crisis and the Asian financial crisis.
From 1995 to 1997, Mr Paterson was Minister in the Australian Embassy in Tokyo.
In 1993 and 1994 he was Assistant Secretary, Americas Branch, in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, responsible for Australia’s political, foreign policy and trade relations with the United States, Canada and the countries of Latin America. From 1991 to 1992, Mr Paterson directed Australia’s international public affairs programs. With the ABC, he developed proposals for an Australian television service to Asia (now ABC Asia Pacific).
After an attachment to the Office of National Assessments (ONA) in Canberra, Mr Paterson served from 1987 to 1991 as Counsellor at the Embassy of Australia in Washington. He was senior Australian Representative to the United States intelligence community and responsible for liaison with CIA, State Department and other agencies on key politico-military, strategic and economic issues.
Mr Paterson has also served as Director for Nuclear Affairs in the Department of Foreign Affairs, during which he was responsible for nuclear non-proliferation, regional nuclear cooperation and Australian membership of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). From 1981 to 1984, he was First Secretary at the Australian Embassy in Vienna, accredited to Austria, Hungary, the IAEA and the United Nations narcotics bodies. Mr Paterson had responsibility for Australia’s bilateral relations with Hungary and for the protection of the interests of Australia’s licit opiates industry.
Mr Paterson was a member of the team which opened the Australian Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq in 1976. He worked in Iraq from 1976 to 1978 and undertook a series of short-term missions to Lebanon, Kuwait, Syria and Jordan. Earlier, he served in Dhaka, Bangladesh from 1972 to 1974.
Mr Paterson was educated at Ballarat College and has an honours degree from the University of Melbourne. He has served as a member of the Boards of the Fulbright Commission and the Australian Centre for American Studies. He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management (FAIM) and is married with three children. He was awarded the Public Service Medal in the 2004 Australia Day Honours Awards.