H.E. Mr John Quinn
Chairperson of the Council Bureau

The current Chairperson of the Council Bureau is H.E. Mr John Quinn,  Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Australia. Mr Quinn has served as Australia’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva and Ambassador for Disarmament since September 2014. In this role, he is responsible for a broad range of multilateral issues including: human rights; arms control and disarmament; refugees, migration and humanitarian affairs; and Australia’s engagement with UN specialized agencies in fields such as health, telecommunications and labour. He is currently Chair of the Council Bureau of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Vice President of the Conference of States Parties to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), and WEOG Regional Coordinator in the UN Human Rights Council.

Before his current assignment in Geneva, Mr Quinn was an Assistant Secretary in the International Security Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) in Canberra. There he dealt with a range of regional and global security and politico-military issues, including cyber, space security and civil-military cooperation.  He chaired the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) from 2008 to 2009. 

In 2011-2012 Mr Quinn was seconded to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet to lead DFAT’s input into the Australian Government’s Australia in the Asian Century White Paper. 

From 2004-2007 he served as Consul-General in Honolulu where his focus was on Indo-Pacific strategic and security issues. He has had four other overseas diplomatic postings - in Tokyo (1998-2001) as Minister-Counsellor (Political), in Manila (1992-94) as Deputy Head of Mission, in New York (1985-88) with Australia’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations where he specialized in human rights and social issues, and in Nairobi (1979-81).

Mr Quinn has occupied a range of other senior positions with DFAT in Canberra, including heading the Australian Government’s inter-agency Iraq Task Force in 2003-4, and leading branches dealing with Southeast Asia, New Zealand and Pacific Regional issues, the Middle East, Nuclear Policy, and Cultural Relations.

Mr Quinn joined Australia’s diplomatic service in 1979, after a brief period practicing law in Sydney. 

He is married to Alison, and has an adult son and daughter.