Allan Taylor (diplomat)

Allan Taylor
Allan Taylor; AM
9th Director-General of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service
	In office; 1 March 1998 – 28 February 2003
Prime Minister	John Howard
Preceded by	Rex Stevenson
Succeeded by	David Irvine
Personal details
Born	Allan Robert Taylor; 23 August 1941; Wynyard, Tasmania, Australia
Died	19 July 2007 (aged 65)
Nationality	Australian
Spouse(s)	Carol
Alma mater	University of Tasmania; University of Oxford
Occupation	Diplomat

Allan Robert Taylor AM (23 August 1941 – 19 June 2007) was an Australian diplomat, who is best known for his service as Director-General of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service from 1998 to 2003.

Early life and education

Taylor was born in Wynyard, Tasmania and spent his childhood in various Tasmanian towns before boarding at Launceston Church Grammar School. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Modern History from the University of Tasmania. He then studied as Tasmania's 1963 Rhodes scholar at Oxford, where he received an MA in History in 1965. His studies led to an interest in diplomacy, and in 1966 he joined the Department of External Affairs, Australia's foreign service.[1]

Diplomatic career

Taylor's early postings were to Pakistan and Thailand. After a posting in Canberra, he was sent to Jakarta to serve as political counsellor for the Australian Embassy. His first posting as head of a consular station was as High Commissioner to Nigeria from 1983 to 1985. From 1989 to 1993, he was High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea. In 1994 he returned to Jakarta as Australian Ambassador to Indonesia.[2]

Australian Secret Intelligence Service

Taylor was Director-General of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service from 1998 to 2003.[3]

gollark: Great!

gollark: Bash is *not* a good programming language! Being a shell, it has its nice sides, like good concurrency control and file descriptor wrangling, but it's just awful otherwise.

gollark: oh bees *why* would you DO this?

gollark: Instead of opus or something, I mean.

gollark: Why MP3, by the way?

References

Smith, Ric (13 July 2007). "Discreet, calm and wise: the markings of a perfect intelligence". The Australian. Retrieved 14 September 2011.
Downer, Alexander: Allan Taylor AM Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 20 June 2007.
Farmer, Bill: Death of Ambassador Allan Taylor, AM, Australian Embassy to Indonesia, 21 June 2007.

Diplomatic posts
Preceded by H.C. Mott	Australian High Commissioner to Nigeria 1983–1985	Succeeded by R.H. Wyndham
Preceded by Lance Joseph	Australian High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea 1989–1993	Succeeded by Bill Farmer
Preceded by Philip Flood	Australian Ambassador to Indonesia 1993–1996	Succeeded by John McCarthy
Government offices
Preceded by Rex Stevenson	Director-General of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service 1998–2003	Succeeded by David Irvine

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[1] Smith, Ric (13 July 2007). "Discreet, calm and wise: the markings of a perfect intelligence". The Australian. Retrieved 14 September 2011.

[2] Downer, Alexander: Allan Taylor AM Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 20 June 2007.

[3] Farmer, Bill: Death of Ambassador Allan Taylor, AM, Australian Embassy to Indonesia, 21 June 2007.