Tim Soutphommasane

Dr Tim Soutphommasane
Born	Thinethavone Soutphommasane
Nationality	Australian
Education	University of Oxford University of Sydney
Occupation	Race Discrimination Commissioner

Tim (Thinethavone) Soutphommasane (pronounced "Soot-pom-ma-sarn") is an Australian academic, political philosopher, social commentator, writer, and columnist. He has previously been a columnist with The Age and The Australian newspapers, an academic at Sydney and Monash Universities, and a research fellow with the Per Capita think tank. He is a member of the board of the National Australia Day Council, and an ex officio member of the Australian Multicultural Council. On 20 August 2013 Soutphommasane commenced a five-year appointment as Australia's Race Discrimination Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission.

Thinethavone 'Tim' Soutphommasane was born in Montpellier, France in 1982 to Chinese and Lao parents who had fled Laos as refugees in 1975.

His family was resettled by the Family Reunion Program of the Australian Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs to Sydney's south-western suburbs in 1985, where he was raised. He was educated at Hurlstone Agricultural High School.

He graduated from the University of Sydney with a first-class honours degree. He was then a Commonwealth Scholar and Jowett Senior Scholar at Balliol College of the University of Oxford where he completed a Master of Philosophy with distinction and a Doctor of Philosophy in political theory.