Maxwell "Max" Gaylard (born 1946) is a former
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
n
diplomat
A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internati ...
and international public servant.
Born in
Nambour, Queensland
Nambour is a rural town and locality in the Sunshine Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Nambour had a population of 11,187 people.
Geography
Nambour is north of the state capital, Brisbane. The town lies in the sub ...
, he was educated at
Nambour State Primary and High Schools, then the
University of Queensland
, mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work
, established =
, endowment = A$224.3 million
, budget = A$2.1 billion
, type = Public research university
, chancellor = Peter Varghese
, vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry
, city = B ...
and
Australian National University
The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...
.
Joining the
Department of External Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...
in 1968, Gaylard was the first diplomatic cadet to be conscripted into the army. He then graduated from the Officer Training Unit at Scheyville in 1968 where he was awarded the Sword of Honour. He was then assigned as a Second Lieutenant/Platoon Commander to the
1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment
1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (1 RAR) is a regular motorised infantry battalion of the Australian Army. 1 RAR was first formed as the 65th Australian Infantry Battalion of the 34th Brigade (Australia) on Balikpapan in 1945 and since ...
, serving in Malaysia and Singapore as part of a Commonwealth Brigade under the Five-Power Defence Arrangements. He returned to the Department in Canberra in 1970, and subsequently served as an Australian diplomat in Mexico, Burma and Singapore. He was
appointed Australian High Commissioner to the Solomon Islands from 1985 - 1988. While resident in the Solomons, he and other diplomats received death threats from an Australian expatriate-dubbed 'Mr Smith' in the media.
Reflecting in 2014, Gaylard said that the saga involving Smith had made the posting "fairly tough".
At the end of his posting in the Solomons, he was seconded by the Australian Government from 1988 - 1996 to London, as Director of International Relations (later re- named Political Affairs) of the
Commonwealth Secretariat
The Commonwealth Secretariat is the main intergovernmental agency and central institution of the Commonwealth of Nations. It is responsible for facilitating co-operation between members; organising meetings, including the Commonwealth Heads o ...
.
[ In that capacity, and during an era of democratisation throughout the Commonwealth, Gaylard served as an envoy of the Commonwealth Secretary-General to a range of Commonwealth countries going through the processes of constitutional change and multi-party elections.
In 1997, Gaylard joined the United Nations as an Assistant then Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator with the ]Oil-for-Food Programme
The Oil-for-Food Programme (OIP), established by the United Nations in 1995 (under United Nations Security Council, UN Security Council United Nations Security Council Resolution 986, Resolution 986) was established to allow Iraq to sell Petrole ...
in northern Iraq, after which he served as the Head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Sudan from 1999 - 2002. He was then appointed by the UN Secretary-General as UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia from 2002 to 2006, and was the Director of the UN Mine Action Service based in New York from 2006 to 2008. From 2008 to 2012, he was appointed by the Secretary General as UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Palestine and Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process. From 2013 to 2014, Gaylard served as a Senior Adviser to the Government of the United Arab Emirates in Abu Dhabi, and 2015-2016 as a UN Assistant Secretary-General and Senior Adviser to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Riyadh.
References
1946 births
High Commissioners of Australia to the Solomon Islands
University of Queensland alumni
Australian National University alumni
People from Nambour, Queensland
Living people
{{Australia-gov-bio-stub