Joanna Hewitt

Ms Joanna Hewitt AO’s career has spanned senior public and private sector roles in the areas of foreign policy, trade and agriculture as well as corporate and public sector boards in Australia and internationally.

Her senior Australian Government appointments have included: Secretary of the Australian Department of Agriculture (2004–07); Deputy Secretary in the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, including as Australia’s Lead WTO Negotiator (2003–04); Ambassador in Brussels (2000–03); and APEC Ambassador (1999–2000).

She has held other senior roles in the OECD Secretariat in Paris and in the Australian Government. She is currently a Member of the Murray Darling Basin Authority and is Australia’s representative on the APEC Vision Group. She is a Board Member of the Lowy Institute for International Policy and her private sector board appointments (between 2007 and 2015) include an Australian and three US corporations.

She has consulted for international organisations and served on a UN expert panel on world food security. Ms Hewitt has a Bachelor of Economics (First Class Honours) from the University of Western Australia (1971) and an MSc (Econ) from the London School of Economics (1976).