Philipp Ivanov is the inaugural CEO of Asia Society Australia, a position he started in January 2015. He is a China specialist with extensive experience in policy, advocacy, education, and research. Previously, he was a policy officer and Manager of the Australia-China Council at the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. In this role, Ivanov led the renewal of the Council and had broader responsibilities for the bilateral relationship between Australia and China. He was one of the principal authors of the “Australia in the Asian Century” white paper.
Previously, Ivanov’s work focused on internationalizing Australian universities. He was Acting Director and Deputy Director of the Research Institute for Asia and the Pacific, advised the University of Sydney on China offshore strategy, and managed La Trobe University’s partnerships in the Gulf States, Vietnam, and Thailand.
Ivanov spent over six years in China working in educational management and development roles. He is the recipient of the Rose Award from the Shenyang Municipal Government for his contribution to Shenyang City. He was also awarded the Australian Government’s Endeavor Executive Fellowship in 2009, under which he undertook research on China’s higher education at the China National Academy of Education Administration in Beijing. He is a board member of Asia Recon, on the Sydney City Council’s Chinese New Year Advisory Panel, and Asia Literacy Ambassador at the Asia Education Foundation. In 2015, Ivanov was invited as the only Australian delegate to the 2015 Congress of Vienna, a preeminent global track-two dialogue on conflict, migration, equality, and innovation.
Ivanov received classical Chinese language, economy, and history training at the Far Eastern National University in Russia. He also studied at Jilin and Liaoning Normal universities in China. He holds a Master of Educational Leadership and Management from RMIT University in Australia. He grew up in Vladivostok on Russia’s Pacific coast and is a fluent Chinese and Russian speaker.
