Maxwell "Max" Gaylard (born 1946) is a former Australian diplomat 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 an ...

. 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 sinc ...

, 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 UN Security Council Resolution 986) was established to allow Iraq to sell oil on the world market in exchange for food, medicine, and other humanitarian needs f ...

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