Thom Woodroofe

Thom Woodroofe, 19, is the founder and Executive Director of Left Right Think-Tank, Australia’s first independent and non-partisan think-tank of young minds. Founded in early 2008, Left Right’s mission is to involve young people in public policy. Its vision is for a society that seeks and embraces the ideas of young people.

Thom is currently completing a Bachelor of Arts (Global) at Monash University where he is a member of the Vice Chancellor’s Leadership Program. In addition to Left Right, Thom is also a board member of the Youth Affairs Council of Victoria, the Australian Youth Affairs Coalition and is a member of the Australian Red Cross’ Victorian Youth Advisory Committee.

Thom has recently finished his tenure as a Youth Ambassador for both the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission and the Jane Goodall Institute of Australia. Thom has also amongst other roles been on the steering committee of the Victorian Youth Mental Health and Wellbeing Summit and the Chairman of the National Air Force Cadet Reference Group representing over 6,500 teenagers across Australia.

In early 2008, Thom was handpicked by Dr Jane Goodall, DBE, a United Nations Messenger of Peace, to represent Australia at a Global Youth Leadership summit in the United States of America. Notably, Thom has also been the youngest participant at the Australian-American Leadership Dialogue at Stanford University and The Global Foundation’s Australia Unlimited Roundtable alongside the Governor General, Prime Minister and Opposition Leader.

Thom has travelled widely overseas on study tours to Asia, Europe and North America, including on an official parliamentary delegation to Malaysia, and has also spent time working overseas in the United States Congress.

Thom has written extensively on contemporary domestic and international politics and regularly appears on radio and television as well, including previously ABC2 News Breakfast and 774 ABC Melbourne. Thom has addressed numerous corporate and community organisations including the Congressional Youth Leadership Council and the White House Press Corps at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. and facilitated the Victorian State Government’s Young People Direct Forum.