Since 2009, I have run the world's premier government agency for discreet foreign policy dialogue. We address every international issue that has "grit in the system". I am a Commissioner for Commonwealth Scholarships; selecting and and funding up to 800 PhD and Masters students, I sit on the Council of Durham University, (I also chair it's Ethics Advisory Committee, and I am chairman of Hatfield College Council) and I am a member of the Board for the Durham Global Security Institute.

Previously I founded and ran my own consultancy business. I have been Chief Executive of the Countryside Alliance and Director General of the Zoological Society of London. I was in the British Council for 10 years, finally as Head of Africa and Middle East Operations. In all I have worked in over 55 countries.

I am a former member of the National Youth Theatre and a governor of the Iwokrama Rainforest Research Centre in Guyana. I have sat on the boards of my two professional organisations ACEVO (for civil society CEOs) and ACE (for the heads of UK government agencies)

I am married to my childhood sweetheart - we have two children; a daughter who is a theatre director in Los Angeles, and a son in the British Army