Andrew Harris

• School of International Affairs

• M.S. INTA 2010

Andrew Harris is Amazon’s head of Public Policy for Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. Based in Singapore, he is responsible for advocacy in support of Amazon’s consumer-facing businesses. In that role, Harris and his team engage policy makers on behalf of Amazon’s interests throughout the region on a wide range of matters, including trade, tax, data governance, and consumer protection. Previous to his current role, Harris served as Amazon’s senior manager of Public Policy, working from Washington, D.C. In that role, he managed a diverse team and portfolio that included responsi-bility for trade policy and Internet governance, as well as Amazon’s policy efforts in Canada and Brazil. Before joining Amazon, Harris served as a foreign affairs officer in the U.S. State Department’s Office of Communication and Information Policy. He held a number of positions including serving as the primary advisor on internet policy issues, as well as covering technology policy in Africa and Asia. Harris began his career serving as a surface warfare officer in the U.S. Navy. He holds an M.S. in International Affairs from Georgia Tech and a B.A. from Vanderbilt University.

How did Tech and the Nunn School help you get where you are?

Georgia Tech and the Nunn School provided a solid foundation in international affairs along with critical thinking and writing skills that have allowed me to thrive in a foreign policy career.  Further, the Nunn School professors, many with technical expertise beyond the field of International Affairs, were critical in developing my understanding of the technological aspects of foreign policy, an asset that has greatly assisted my career.

What advice you would give current students at Tech as well as the Sam Nunn School specifically?

I would urge all Sam Nunn students to take advantage of all that Tech has to offer. Plenty of universities offer degrees in political science and international affairs, but very few have the same depth in engineering, science, and computing. This is a major advantage of the Nunn School, and every International Affairs student should make it their own advantage by applying their international studies work to these varied fields.  Doing so will make Nunn students exceptionally competitive after graduation.

What is something that you got from studying International Affairs at Tech?

During two years of constant and often grueling challenges, Tech instilled in me the necessity for discipline and collaboration in every aspect of work; those skills have greatly sharpened my own professionalism.