Greg Urwin

Urwin entered the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, or DFAT, in 1971 following his graduation from the University of Sydney.

His first diplomatic posting for DFAT was 1971–1974 to the Australian embassy in Ottawa, the capital of Canada.

Urwin's work as a Pacific region specialist began in 1977 when he was posted to Apia, Samoa from Canberra, to open Australia's first diplomatic mission in the Polynesian nation.

Urwin was seconded to Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Samoa in 1979.

In this capacity, Urwin assisted Samoa in developing its international foreign policy.

Urwin's later Pacific diplomatic assignments included serving as Australian High Commissioner in Fiji and Vanuatu and the deputy head of the Australian mission in New Zealand.

Through his diplomatic postings in large nations, Urwin was often accredited to smaller Pacific island states as well.

Urwin's first marriage to Louise Dauth ended while he was Apia.

He married his second wife, Penny Clark, a Samoan widow with three sons.

Urwin often returned to Canberra, Australia, between diplomatic postings, where he often served as a special envoy for the government or as an international election observer.

Despite his overseas positions, Urwin remained active and in tune to Australian domestic politics.

Urwin was part of the Australian delegation to the 2000 Pacific Islands Forum summit in Kiribati.

Urwin was considered to be a very important drafter of the Biketawa Declaration, which was signed at the Kiribati summit.

The Biketawa Declaration, named after the island of Biketawa where negotiations took place, provided a firm political framework for regional cooperation on Pacific island security for the first time.

The Declaration established a mechanism by which Forum countries could come to the assistance of its members.

The Biketawa Declaration came against a backdrop of increased political instability throughout Melanesia at the time.

George Speight had recently staged the 2000 Fijian coup d'état during the same year and the Solomon Islands were nearly brought to civil war due to ethnic tensions on the island of Guadalcanal.

Urwin was considered to be an instrumental voice in the application of the Biketawa Declaration to the Solomons Island Crisis.

Urwin applied the declaration to the crisis and gathered regional support for the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands, or RAMSI, which was sent to the Solomon Islands in 2003 to help quell the ethnic violence and remains to this day.

RAMSI stabilised the nation and allowed the government of the Solomon Islands to rebuild its administration and the economy.

Urwin's skill as a diplomat and his handling of the Solomon Islands tension earned him a reputation of having an awareness of the sensibilities of Pacific Island leaders and local culture.

In 2004, Australian Prime Minister John Howard backed Urwin as a candidate for Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum.

Leaders of some neighbouring island states, notably Papua New Guinea, opposed Urwin's nomination, not because they disliked Urwin, but because they feared perceived Australian political domination of the Forum and the region at large, especially by Howard, whom they viewed as heavy-handed.

Some Pacific Island nations said that they would prefer someone of Pacific Islander descent.

Ultimately though Urwin won the nomination.

Urwin competed against three other candidates, all Pacific Islanders, whose nominations were also put forth for Secretary General – lawyer Tuala Donald Kerslake of Samoa; Vinci Clodumar of Nauru, the country's permanent representative to the United Nations; and Langi Kavaliku a doctor from Tonga.

Ultimately, despite some opposition, Urwin prevailed and became the first Australian Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum in 2004.

As Secretary General, Urwin played a central role in the adoption of the Pacific Plan at the Pacific Islands Forum summit in Port Moresby in October 2005.

The Pacific Plan is a "co-operation scheme" which is based on four "pillars" to promote regional cooperation and integration in Pacific Island nations: economic growth, sustainable development, good governance and security.

Urwin also worked to promote dialogue between the Pacific Islands Forum and other regional activists and organisations.

Gregory Lawrence Urwin PSM CSI (August 1946 – 9 August 2008) was an Australian career diplomat and top Pacific specialist.

Urwin held the post of Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum, an important inter-governmental regional organisation from 2004 until 2 May 2008.

Urwin had been the longest serving Australian diplomat in the Pacific at the time of his death in 2008.

Urwin was also the first non-Pacific Islander to become Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum.

During his tenure as a diplomat and Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum, Urwin was considered to be instrumental in the rebuilding of failed states and promotion of political stability in the region - especially with the RAMSI mission in the Solomon Islands.

Greg Urwin was born in Lithgow, New South Wales, Australia, to parents Frank and Verna Urwin.

The family relocated to the Wollongong area and then to Oak Flats when Urwin was ten years old.

Urwin initially attended elementary school at Fairy Meadow Public School.

Urwin then attended Wollongong High School where he became school captain.

Urwin completed undergraduate studies in history with honours at the University of Sydney where he was also senior student at Wesley College.