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Biography
David Taylor Irvine AO (born 10 January 1947) is an Australian diplomat, who from March 2009 to September 2014 was the Director-General of Security, the head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation. Prior to his appointment to ASIO, he was Director-General of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) from 2003 to 2009. In 2017 he was unexpectedly appointed Chair of the Foreign Investment Review Board despite having no professional investment or business experience.
Irvine was born in Perth, Western Australia and studied at Hale School and The University of Western Australia, graduating with honours in Elizabethan history. He worked as a journalist in Perth, and joined the Department of External Affairs (the Australian foreign service) in 1970, and served as Australian High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea (1996–1999) and Australian Ambassador to China (2000–2003).
He has written two books about Indonesia: a 1990 English translation of Bisma: Warrior Priest of the Mahabharata by Satyagraha Hurip, and Leather Gods & Wooden Heroes: Java's Classical Wayang (1996; about Indonesian Wayang shadow puppets).
