Rosemary Banks

Rosemary Banks (born 1951) is a New Zealand diplomat who serves as the Ambassador of New Zealand to the United States. She first held that position from 2018 to 2022 and was appointed to a second term in 2024. She is the first woman to hold the position.

Education Banks graduated with an MA in Russian from the University of Canterbury, and received an MSc from the London School of Economics. She was awarded an honorary doctorate of literature by the University of Canterbury in April 2015.

Career Banks served as New Zealand deputy high commissioner to the Solomon Islands between 1985 and 1987, and to Australia from 1992 until 1995.

She was New Zealand's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York from June 2005 to June 2009, and Ambassador to France and Permanent Representative to the OECD from 2010 to 2014. In 2018, Banks succeeded Tim Groser as New Zealand ambassador to the United States. She served in that capacity until 2022 and was reappointed in 2024, succeeding Bede Corry.

Banks has also served as a Crown negotiator for the Treaty of Waitangi settlement process from 2016 to 2018.