Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Ph.D., will be the keynote speaker at the 2026 Commencement ceremony for the USC Price School of Public Policy.
Rudd, who is the incoming President and CEO of Asia Society, also served as Australia’s Foreign Minister and, more recently, the country’s Ambassador to the U.S. from March 2023 to April 2026. He was a Member of the Australian Parliament from 1998 to 2013.
Australia’s 26th Prime Minister
Rudd served as Australia’s 26th Prime Minister from 2007 to 2010, before returning as Prime Minister in 2013. As Prime Minister, Rudd oversaw the government’s response to the 2008 financial crisis, helping Australia avoid a recession thanks in large part to economic stimulus packages. He also ratified the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions that are the prime cause of climate change, and withdrew Australian troops from the Iraq War.
As Ambassador to the U.S., Rudd worked with diplomats under U.S. Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump. He played a key role in negotiating the release of Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange, and helped secure multi-billion dollar trade deals for minerals and submarines with the U.S.
“Kevin Rudd is a world leader who has navigated some of the greatest policy challenges in recent history,” said Christopher Boone, Dean and C. Erwin and Ione L. Piper Chair of the USC Price School. “Rudd is an outstanding example of public service for our graduates – the next generation of public servants who are preparing to take on today’s policy challenges.”
USC Price Commencement Keynote Speech
Rudd will address about 5,000 USC Price School undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral students and their families at The Shrine Auditorium beginning at 4:30 p.m. on May 15, 2026. The event will also be live streamed.
In addition to being a political leader, Rudd is regarded as a leading analyst of China. He was the inaugural President of the Asia Society Policy Institute in New York. In 2020, he was appointed President and CEO of the Asia Society globally, before returning to lead the organization again this year.
He is the author, among many other books, of On Xi Jinping: How Xi’s Marxist Nationalism is Shaping China and the World, which is based on his University of Oxford doctoral thesis and published by Oxford University Press.
Rudd is also founder and co-chair of the National Apology Foundation, which advances reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
