Richard Grant

Dr Richard Grant was the Executive Director of the Asia New Zealand Foundation from January 2008 to March 2012. He is the current chair of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. He previously held the position of  Vice-Chair, as well as the Chair of the Institute’s Hawkes Bay branch.

Dr Grant had a distinguished diplomatic career over 40 years working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in the Pacific, Europe, Australia and Asia. He is a former New Zealand Ambassador in Bonn and Paris and a former High Commissioner in London and Singapore. He has also represented New Zealand at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and held other senior positions including Deputy Secretary for External Economic and Trade Policy at the Foreign Ministry. He was chair of the Arts Council of Creative New Zealand from 2013 to 2017. 

Dr Grant received his doctorate at the University of Clermont-Ferrand, France. In 1999 he was a Visiting Scholar at the John F Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and in 2004 was a Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University.