Tim Soutphommasane

Professor Tim Soutphommasane was recently appointed Chief Diversity Officer at the University of Oxford. He is a human rights advocate, expert on diversity and culture, and political thinker. He was previously Australia’s Race Discrimination Commissioner.

Tim’s work on diversity, race and patriotism has shaped debates in Australia and Britain, and guided organisations in cultural change. His work and commentary has been reported in global outlets including the New York Times, BBC, Financial Times, The Guardian, The Times, The Telegraph and CNN.

From 2013 to 2018 Tim was Race Discrimination Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission, where he led the National Anti-Racism Strategy and successfully led national efforts to defend federal racial discrimination laws against repeal and amendment.

Within Australia he has pioneered efforts to boost diversity and generate cultural change within organisations. He was founding chair of the Leadership Council on Cultural Diversity and founded the Dr John Yu Fellowship in cultural diversity and leadership. He led institutional culture change at the University of Sydney, where he directed the University’s Culture Strategy.

Tim has also worked in politics as a speechwriter and media adviser, and has been an opinion columnist for the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age and the Australian.

A graduate of the University of Oxford and the University of Sydney, Tim is the author of five books about patriotism, multiculturalism, race and human rights: On Hate (2019), I’m Not Racist But … (2015), Don’t Go Back To Where You Came From (2012), The Virtuous Citizen (2012) and Reclaiming Patriotism (2009).