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Thom Woodroofe, 21, is a foreign affairs analyst com­bin­ing journ­al­ism, research, teach­ing and com­munity work to advance an under­stand­ing of Australia’s place in the world.

In 2009 Thom was recog­nised as the Young Victorian of the Year for his work in estab­lish­ing Left Right Think-Tank, Australia’s first non-partisan policy body of young people which now oper­ates across five states with a staff of over sixty people.

A recent gradu­ate of Monash University Thom studied across North America, Europe and Asia as part of his degree, includ­ing at the University of California and the Institut de Hautes Études Internationales. He is cur­rently teach­ing and reading for his honours thesis at the University of Melbourne on cam­paigns by middle powers for non-permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council.

A freel­ance journ­al­ist on inter­na­tional affairs Thom fre­quently writes for the ABC, 7 Media, News Limited as well as Fairfax and has con­trib­uted to The Diplomat Magazine, the East Asia Forum and The Lowy Institute’s Interpreter. He is also a regular guest on ABC TV’s News Breakfast and The Drum. He has repor­ted on the ground from hot­spots such as Burma during par­lia­ment­ary elec­tions, com­mun­ist Cuba under Castro, and on the Middle East peace process from inside The West Bank. He has inter­viewed both the current and former Prime Minister and was respons­ible for break­ing an exclus­ive story con­cern­ing their rela­tion­ship impact­ing Australia’s attend­ance at the Asia-Europe Meeting last year which received wide­spread cov­er­age on ABC TV’s Insiders and 7.30 Report.

Thom is also a non-resident Associate Fellow of The Asia Society based in New York and on the Global Agenda Council of the World Economic Forum based in Geneva. His wider research focuses heavily on the role of mul­ti­lat­eral insti­tu­tions includ­ing the future of the G20 as well as emer­ging regional archi­tec­ture. He has been one of the young­est par­ti­cipants at many of these high-level gath­er­ings includ­ing the Asia Pacific Economic Coöperation bring­ing him together with world leaders such as Presidents Obama, Hu Jintao and Medvedev amongst others. A regular public speaker he has addressed audi­ences such as the White House Press Corps at the National Press Club in Washington DC.

Thom is based in Melbourne after a stint in Kuala Lumpur and prior to this in San Francisco where he spent time working for both sides of polit­ics: in the United States Congress for former Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi and more recently for former Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in California. He is the young­est member of the Australian American Leadership Dialogue and the Australia Israel Leadership Forum.
Thom has pre­vi­ously been named one of Melbourne’s 100 Most Influential People by The Melbourne Magazine and one of the region’s leading young people by The Asia Society. He has also been recog­nized as a Global Changemaker by the British Council and received a Davos Connection Leadership Award as well as a United States Congressional Certificate of Special Recognition. More recently he was selec­ted to rep­res­ent Australia at Commonwealth Day in London where he met Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Thom is an avid jet­set­ter spend­ing over two hundred days a year over­seas for various com­mit­ments and has visited every major region of the world besides Antarctica. But he always enjoys return­ing to regional Australia where he grew up on an isol­ated prop­erty without elec­tri­city!
In his spare time he enjoys keeping up his private pilot lessons, cross country running, amateur rally car driving, modern art and dream­ing of opening an organic restaurant!

In the future, Thom plans con­tinue to focus on foreign affairs through further study and con­tin­ued lead­er­ship pos­i­tions with a desire to ulti­mately see Australia as a nation renowned for ideas, vision and ideal­ism in the world.