Program speakers

Mathew Fox

First Assistant Secretary – DFAT

Mathew Fox is First Assistant Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Climate Diplomacy and Development Finance Division.

Between 2020 and 2023, Mathew worked in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet leading the Quad and AUKUS Policy Branch and serving as Quad Sous Sherpa.  In this role Mathew was responsible for advancing Quad and AUKUS initiatives within the Australian system and with international partners.  Prior to this role, Mathew headed PM&C’s Defence and Intelligence Branch and Naval Shipbuilding Branch.

Between 2016 and 2018, he served overseas in Manila as Executive Director on the Asian Development Bank Board of Directors for the constituency representing Australia; Azerbaijan; Cambodia; Georgia; Hong Kong, China: Kiribati; Federated States of Micronesia; Nauru; Palau; Solomon Islands and Tuvalu.  He has also served in Port Moresby between 2008 and 2011 as the Treasury’s senior economic policy adviser to the Papua New Guinea Treasury and in Honiara between 2003 and 2004 as senior budget adviser to the Solomon Islands Ministry of Finance and Treasury under the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands. 

In Canberra, after an early career in the Department of Defence, Mathew’s earlier senior executive roles have included in the Department of Finance, the Treasury and Parliamentary Budget Office.