Gillian Bird

Her Excellency Gillian Bird PSM
Gillian Bird in 2004
22nd Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations
Incumbent
Assumed office January 2015
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Governor-General	Sir Peter Cosgrove
Prime Minister	Tony Abbott Malcolm Turnbull
Preceded by	Gary Quinlan
Personal details
Born	Gillian Elizabeth Bird Adelaide, Australia
Alma mater	University of Sydney École nationale d'administration

Gillian Elizabeth Bird PSM (born in Adelaide) is an Australian career diplomat.

Bird graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Arts (First Class Honours) and later studied at the prestigious École nationale d'administration.

Bird joined the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1980, and from 1980 to 1983 was based in Paris where she was a representative of the Australian government to the OECD. From 1986 until 1987 Bird served at the Australian embassy in Harare, and from 1990 until 1993 at the Permanent Mission of Australia to the United Nations in New York City.

Bird returned to Australia in 1993 and was appointed Assistant Secretary in the Executive Branch of the foreign ministry, and from 1994 to 1997 was Assistant Secretary in the Peace, Arms Control and Disarmament Branch. From 1997 to 1999 Bird was First Assistant Secretary in International Organisations and Legal Division, and from 1999 to 2002 she was First Assistant Secretary in the South and South-East Asia Division.

After a stint as Head of the Foreign and Trade Policy White Paper Task Force of the Australian foreign department, in 2002 she was appointed as First Assistant Secretary in the International Division of Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. She held this position until 2004, when she was appointed Deputy Secretary in the Executive Branch of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Concurrent to this role, in 2008 Bird was appointed as Australia's first Ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations by Stephen Smith, then-Foreign Minister of Australia. Australia became the first ASEAN dialogue partner in 1974, and Bird's appointment enabled Australia to continue friendly relations with the regional bloc, whilst also giving it a voice in helping to solve regional issues.