Ms Melissa O’Rourke has been Director of the Queensland State Office of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) since March 2021. She is a career officer with DFAT and was most recently Director of the G20 and OECD Section. Ms O’Rourke served as Australia’s Ambassador to Ukraine from September 2017 to September 2020. She has also served overseas in Moscow, Brussels and Bangkok.

Ms O'Rourke holds a Master of International Law from the Australian National University and a Master of International Relations and Asian Politics from the University of Queensland (UQ). She also has a Bachelor of International Business from the Queensland University of Technology and Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from UQ.