Bilateral Tech Diplomacy Series: U.S. – Australia Inaugural Dialogue Panelists and Moderators


Hon. Jeff Bleich

Hon. Jeff Bleich

The Hon. Jeff Bleich, is the Chief Legal Office at Cruise, leading the legal and compliance teams. He previously served as a special master in the U.S. District Court, and as a partner at both Munger, Tolles & Olson and Dentons. He has over three decades experience in resolving complex domestic and international disputes. He served as the U.S. Ambassador to Australia, and as Special Counsel to President Obama in the White House. For his federal service, Ambassador Bleich received numerous awards, including the Sue Cobb Medal, the State Department's highest award for a non-career ambassador.

As an attorney, Bleich's career in Silicon Valley has specialized in disruptive technologies, cybersecurity and international disputes. He has been honored as California Lawyer Attorney of the Year, and regularly listed among the Daily Journal's 100 most influential attorneys in California, in the LawDragon's top 500, and in America's Best Lawyers as a top "Bet the Company" lawyer.

Outside his professional practice, Bleich has focused on the challenges and opportunities that digital technologies present for democracies, and the need for democratic nations to combine efforts to address them. In 2019, the Jeff Bleich Center for the US Alliance in Digital Technology, Security, and Governance was established in his name at Flinders University to advance this work. Bleich has also served on several public and private sector boards, including as the three-term Chair of the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, Chair of PG&E Company during its 2019-2020 bankruptcy reorganization, Chair of the California State University Board of Trustees, President of the California State Bar, President of the Bar Association of San Francisco, Chair of the ABA's Amicus Curiae Committee, and as a member of the Board of Trustees of Amherst College. He has been elected as a life member to both the American Law Institute and the Council on Foreign Relations.

Bleich has taught several courses at UC Berkeley School of Law, and publishes extensively. He holds a B.A. magna cum laude from Amherst College, an M.P.P from Harvard with highest honors, a J.D. from the Univ. of California, Berkeley with highest honors, and an honorary Doctor of Laws from S.F. State University, Flinders University, and Griffith University.

Bleich clerked for Chief Justice William Rehnquist of the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge Abner Mikva of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and Judge Howard Holtzmann of the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal at The Hague. In 2009, the City of San Francisco established "Jeff Bleich Day" in his honor.


Mung Chiang

Mung Chiang

Mung Chiang is the President-Elect of Purdue University and the Roscoe H. George Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. From July 2017 to June 2022, he was the John A. Edwardson Dean of the College of Engineering, and since April 2021, he has been the executive vice president for strategic initiatives. He led Purdue Engineering to its first back-to-back top 4 graduate ranking in the U.S. while growing it to be the largest top 10 undergraduate engineering college in the country. Previously, Chiang was the Arthur LeGrand Doty Professor of Electrical Engineering at Princeton University. As a researcher in wireless networking, Chiang received the Alan T. Waterman Award in 2013, the highest honor to an American researcher under the age of 40 each year and was elected to the National Academy of Inventors and the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. He received the Distinguished Teaching Award in Engineering at Princeton for developing one of the university's first Massive Open Online Courses that has been taught to over 400,000 people. Most of Chiang's 25 U.S. patents have been licensed and deployed by the communications and networking industry, and he co-founded three startup companies in mobile networks, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things. Chiang also served as the Science and Technology Adviser to the U.S. Secretary of State and initiated the U.S. government's tech diplomacy programs.


Hon. Bonnie Glick

Hon. Bonnie Glick

Bonnie Glick is an American diplomat and businesswoman who served as the Deputy Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development from 2019 to 2020. Nominated for the post by President Donald Trump in April 2018, she was confirmed by the United States Senate by unanimous consent in January 2019.

Glick began her career as an American diplomat and served for 12 years as a Foreign Service Officer at the United States Department of State. She later worked for IBM as a global account executive, where she co-authored three patents as part of IBM Research. Glick served as the Deputy Secretary of the Maryland Department of Aging from 2017 until 2019 under Governor Larry Hogan.

In her role as Deputy Administrator of USAID, Glick served as the Deputy for all U.S. policies and as the Chief Operating Officer of the agency. Among the issues she championed were digital transformation, the significance of 5G as a development priority in emerging markets, private sector engagement, democracy and governance, global vaccine distribution, and food security. She was the Executive Sponsor of USAID's COVID-19 Task Force that addressed both the safety and security of the global workforce and the international response to the outbreak. She led the Administrator's Action Alliance for Preventing Sexual Misconduct, the Executive Diversity Council, the Agency's Enterprise Risk Management Council, the Partner Vetting Council, and the Management Operations Council. As USAID's Chief Operating Officer, she represented the Agency on the President's Management Council.

Glick speaks seven languages including English, Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew, Amharic, French, and Russian. She graduated with a B.A. in Government/International Relations from Cornell University, an M.A. in International Affairs from Columbia University, and an MBA from the University of Maryland. She is married and has two sons.


Hon. Daniel S. Goldin

Hon. Daniel S. Goldin

The Honorable Daniel S. Goldin has the distinction of serving as NASA's longest tenured Administrator from April 1992 to November 2001 and reported directly to three U.S. Presidents: George H.W. Bush, William Jefferson Clinton, and George W. Bush.

Prior to NASA, he was Vice President and General Manager of the TRW Space and Technology Group, now Northrop Grumman, where he oversaw a broad range of advanced space and technology developments focused on America's national security, scientific exploration of the solar system, and universe and development of commercial products for the global marketplace. Mr. Goldin began his career as a research scientist at NASA's Glenn Research Center working on electric propulsion systems to enable future human interplanetary travel.

Today, Mr. Goldin is an entrepreneur and technologist. Most recently he is the founder of Cold Canyon AI, an innovation advisory company and a senior advisor to private equity and venture capital on investing and nurturing technology companies. His career has spanned numerous technologies and businesses in space exploration and science, aeronautics, air traffic management, national security, semiconductors, communications, artificial intelligence and advanced technologies.

Mr. Goldin is a Member of the National Academy of Engineering and International Academy of Astronautics. He is a Fellow of the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics and a Fellow of the American Astronautical Society.


Hon. Arthur Sinodinos

Hon. Arthur Sinodinos

The Hon. Arthur Sinodinos AO is Australia's Ambassador to the United States of America, taking up his posting in Washington in February 2020.

Ambassador Sinodinos was previously Australia's Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science and was a Senator for New South Wales in the Australian Parliament from 2011 to 2019. During his parliamentary career, he also held other key roles in and outside Cabinet, including Cabinet Secretary and Assistant Treasurer.

Over a career spanning four decades, Ambassador Sinodinos has dedicated his professional life to the advancement of Australia and its people. On the election of the Hon. John Howard AC as Prime Minister of Australia in 1996, Ambassador Sinodinos was appointed the Prime Minister's Senior Economic Adviser and in 1997, the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff, a position he held for nine years. Between 1987-1989 and 1995-1996 Ambassador Sinodinos also served as Senior Economic Adviser to Mr Howard while in opposition. He started his Australian Public Service career in 1979, rising to the Senior Executive Service in the Department of the Treasury.

In 2006, Ambassador Sinodinos left government to work with Goldman Sachs JBWere, followed by the National Australia Bank and various corporate appointments.

In 2008, Ambassador Sinodinos was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for his service to politics through the executive function of government, to the development of economic policy and reform, and to the Greek community. In 2019, he was made a Distinguished Fellow of the Australia & New Zealand School of Government in recognition of his promotion of public sector leadership.


Melissa de Zwart

Melissa de Zwart

Professor Melissa de Zwart is Professor of Digital Technology, Security & Governance and Director, Jeff Bleich Centre for the US Alliance in Digital Technology, Security & Governance, Flinders University.

Professor de Zwart is a thought-leader in the area of law and technology and has a strong international profile in the fields of internet law and the regulation of access to and uses of outer space. She previously served as Dean of the Adelaide Law School, University of Adelaide (2017-2021), and Chair of the Council of Australian Law Deans. She is currently the Deputy Chair of the Space Industry Association of Australia, Board Member of the Australian Academy of Law and a Lieutenant in the Royal Australian Navy (Reserve). She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law and has received awards for her teaching and research. She is a Member of the International Institute of Space Law and a former Regional Co-ordinator of the Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot. She is a member of numerous editorial boards and a frequent media commentator on space law and related issues. Her work has been cited extensively by parliaments, courts and government bodies.