Scott Michael Ryan (born 12 May 1973) is a former Australian politician who is the High Commissioner of Australia to Canada since December 2021. He served as Senator for Victoria from 2008 to 2021, representing the Liberal Party. He was President of the Senate from 2017 to 2021, having previously been a minister in the Turnbull Government from 2016 to 2017. Early life Ryan was born on 12 May 1973, in Brisbane, Queensland. He grew up in , Victoria. He was educated at St Kevin's College, Melbourne, and graduated from the University of Melbourne, with a Bachelor of Arts. While at university, he served as president of the Melbourne University Liberal Club and was a member of the Australian Liberal Students' Federation, where he is a life member. Ryan was a tutor in political science at the University of Melbourne from 1998 to 1999. He then worked as a speechwriter and staffer in the office of the Victorian opposition leader Denis Napthine. From 2002 to 2007 he worked in corporate affairs for pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline. He was a research fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs from 2007 to 2008. Politics Ryan was a member of the executive of the Victorian Division of the Liberal Party, holding the office of vice president. He was elected to a six-year Senate term at the 2007 federal election, commencing on 1 July 2008. He was preselected in the third position on the Coalition ticket in Victoria. He was re-elected to a second six-year term at the 2013 election, which was cut short by a double dissolution. Ryan was re-elected at the 2016 Australian federal election. The first sitting of the new Senate allocated which senators were elected for only three years and which received a full six-year term. As a consequence of which method was chosen to allocate the six-year and three-year term seats, Ryan was one of the two senators (the other being Deborah O'Neill) who received a six-year term instead of a three-year term. Government minister Following the 2013 federal election that resulted in the formation of the Abbott Ministry, Ryan was appointed as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education; later expanded as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education and Training. Ryan served as the Minister for Vocational Education and Skills following a rearrangement in the First Turnbull Ministry, between February and July 2016. In March 2016,