Leadership Dialogue Honouree 2012

Dick Woolcott, Bob Zoellick and Kim Beazley embody the values and principles underlying the Leadership Dialogue—bipartisanship, global perspective, commitment to leadership in the service of others, open and honest exchanges of views, and belief in the inter generational imperative.

Kim Beazley has been a stalwart of the Leadership Dialogue from the very beginning and he has been supported in his endeavour by his wife, Susie. When former New South Wales Liberal Premier Nick Greiner and I met with Kim in his Ministerial office in Canberra during the January 1992 visit by President Bush, Kim and Nick agreed to be standard bearers of their respective sides of politics, thereby cementing the bipartisan principle within the Leadership Dialogue.

There are many examples of Kim making important contributions to the performance and evolution of the Leadership Dialogue— from his seminal opening remarks about the global scene at our very first session in Washington DC in June 1993, to his often wise counsel and discreet advocacy.

With former Liberal Premier of Western Australia Richard Court, Kim formed a bipartisan alliance to identify WA participants in the Australian American Leadership Dialogue, and later the Young Leadership Dialogue.

Kim and Richard co-hosted annual dinners in Perth to build leadership connections which facilitated the resounding success of the 19th annual Australian American Leadership Dialogue in Perth last August. He introduced us to former Secretary George Shultz whose support provided impetus to establishing the Stanford leg of the West Coast Leadership Dialogue, now into its 7th year. With Tony Abbott, Kim co-led the Australian delegation to the first Honolulu Leadership Dialogue, now into its 6th year.

Kim continues to play a pivotal role – serving ex officio with US Ambassador Jeff Bleich on the Organizing Committee of the 20th annual American Australian Leadership Dialogue in Washington DC. Also, Kim and his excellent Embassy colleagues have personally recruited several US delegates to participate in this year’s Young Leadership Dialogue in Washington DC—Team Australia at work.

Kim Beazley is one of the most respected Australian leaders of the past 30 years, not least in the United States. It is appropriate that Kurt Campbell presents the 2012 Leadership Dialogue Honour to Kim, and inthe process we all salute him.

Phil Scanlan
Founder
Australian American Leadership Dialogue