
April Palmerlee
Pronoun
Chief Executive Officer
AmCham Australia
April Palmerlee has been CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia since 2017. In 2024, she was elected Chairman of AmChams of the Asia Pacific. American-born, she has lived in Sydney for over 20 years and is a dual citizen. She is a member of Chief Executive Women and a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She received a BS from Georgetown and a Master’s from Columbia.
In Australia, she has worked for the US Studies Centre at USyd, the Lowy Institute, the Centre for Independent Studies, and Potomac Partners. In the United States, she held the rank of Assistant Secretary of State. Before that, she was a senior executive at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. She has also worked for couturier Oscar de la Renta, financial publisher The Bank Credit Analyst, and not-for-profit The Spanish Institute.
She sits on the boards of CIS, The United Way Australia and Georgetown University Australian and New Zealand Studies Center. April also teaches MBA students at the University of Sydney Business School.