About Graeme Lade
Graeme Lade
Author
Working as a diplomat proved a rewarding and satisfying career.
Graeme Lade
BIOGRAPHY
Graeme Lade was born in Sydney, Australia, and his high school and university education were undertaken in Canberra. He graduated from the Australian National University with an Arts (Honours) degree, having majored in Japanese history and language.
In 1971, he joined the then Department of External Affairs (now Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) as a diplomatic trainee. His subsequent assignments included service overseas in Hong Kong, Japan (twice), Thailand, Malaysia, and the USA (Washington D.C.). His final overseas assignment was as Australian Ambassador to Nepal from 2006 to 2009. In Canberra, his key desk jobs were as Director, South Asia Section, and as Director, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, and Brunei Section.
Since retiring in 2009, he has served in a voluntary capacity as a Board Member of the Australian Cervical Cancer Foundation (ACCF). He continued in this role and from 2016 to 2023 served as Chair of the Foundation. Additionally, he has helped oversee ACCF project activities in Nepal, Bhutan, Vietnam, and the Philippines. He continues to support ACCF efforts to work towards the elimination of cervical cancer in Australia, hopefully before 2035.
Since 2009, he has accompanied his partner, who is a Philippine diplomat, on her home-based assignments in Manila and overseas in Vietnam, Myanmar, and currently Melbourne, Australia.
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New Release
In this book, Graeme has sought to dispel false perceptions about the role of a diplomat and portray diplomacy as an honourable, satisfying and rewarding career, but one that can be challenging at times and often entails a lot of hard work. In doing so, Graeme has drawn on his personal experiences. Some of the more dramatic ones involved helping to rescue an Australian mountaineer who had been given up for dead on Mount Everest, dealing with the tragic deaths of two young Australians who died in a plane crash in Nepal, helping to find a solution for the long-suffering Bhutanese refugees as well as becoming involved in issues relating to Indochinese and other refugee groups. In the process, Graeme has highlighted his hands-on experience in tackling these issues.
By Graeme Lade
A Diplomatic Life
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