Anthony George Simpson attended King’s High School from 1988 to 1992, and he was one of the Wall of Fame Inductees this year.

His Excellency Mr Anthony Simpson has been serving as New Zealand’s Ambassador to the Italian Republic since May 2019. He is also serving as non-resident Ambassador to Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Montenegro, North Macedonia, San Marino, and Serbia, and as Permanent Representative to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP), and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

A career diplomat, Ambassador Anthony has previously completed missions in Tokyo and New York, and has undertaken a range of roles in the areas of Trade and Economic Policy, International Security, Regional Integration, and Multilateral Diplomacy.

In his final year at school Anthony was a School Prefect, School Dux, winner of the English, History, Classical Studies and Art History prizes, the school representative in the mini United Nations Assembly, the School Council Secretary and a member of the Workday Committee, the Formal Committee, and the Common Room Committee. He was interested in sport playing Rugby, Tennis and Basketball.

He was the leading speaker in the school Debating team, a Peer Tutor and a teacher's assistant. In the previous year he won the coveted Bremner Scholarship for Academic Excellence as well as special prizes for English, History and Classical Studies.

In his second year at King's, he had the lead role as Oliver in the school's production of Oliver. In 1992 he really came of age taking the leading part of the Modern Major General in the Queen's High School production of the Pirates of Penzance. He was awarded a School Blue for Drama.

On leaving King’s Anthony spent from 1993 to 1998 studying at University of Otago. He graduated in 1999 with a Batchelor of Arts with Double Honours Degrees in English and Political Studies. He continued his study from 2008 to 2009 when he completed an Executive Masters of Public Administration with ANZ School of Government at Victoria University.

He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 2000 and has remained there in a variety of roles. In his first year he was a Policy Officer in the United Nations and Commonwealth Division. Then from 2002 to 2006 he was Second Secretary (Trade) at the NZ Embassy in Tokyo (including two years Japanese Language Training). The next three years were spent as Senior Policy Officer, Economic Division, covering APEC issues. 

This was followed in 2009 when he became First Secretary, NZ Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York. A particular focus here was on NZ’s campaign for a seat on the UN Security Council. At the end of this time in 2015 he spent a year leading the New Zealand’s Capital-Based Policy Coordination team during its term as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, and served as Deputy Director for European Affairs in New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He then spent a further two years the Political Coordinator for New Zealand’s membership of the UN Security Council (based in Wellington).

From 2019 to the present he has been the New Zealand Ambassador in Rome.