The IAEA Board of Governors has elected Ambassador Ian David Grainge Biggs as the Chairperson of the IAEA’s Board of Governors for 2025–2026. His one-year term commences today. He succeeds Ambassador Matilda Aku Alomatu Osei-Agyeman of Ghana.
Ambassador Biggs is Australia’s Resident Representative to the IAEA and Permanent Representative to the United Nations, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He has served since 2023 as Australia’s Ambassador to Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia.
A career diplomat with 40 years of experience, Ambassador Biggs previously served as Australia’s Ambassador for Arms Control and Counter-Proliferation, from 2022 to 2023. He has also served as Ambassador to Iran, Türkiye, and Saudi Arabia, with accreditation also to Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Georgia, Oman and Yemen. Other assignments have included Deputy High Commissioner to India, Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, and a range of senior roles in the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade focused on international security, arms control and South and West Asia.
Earlier in his career, Ambassador Biggs held posts in Cairo, Riyadh, Damascus, Beirut, Vienna and Baghdad, and he served as Special Assistant to the Director General of the IAEA from 2002 to 2004. He has also chaired multilateral export-control and non-proliferation regimes, including the Australia Group and the Nuclear-Related Dual-Use Regime.
Ambassador Biggs holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Sydney and a Master of Arts in International Relations from the Australian National University.