Sir (Robert) John Sawers,
KCMGThe Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent whilst he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III. It is named in honour of two military saints, St. Michael and St...
(born 26 July 1955) is a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
diplomatA diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organisation. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...
. He is the current British Permanent Representative to the United Nations (
UNThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
) since August 2007. He is due to take up his new role as Chief of
MI6The Secret Intelligence Service , colloquially known as MI6 is the United Kingdom's external intelligence agency, part of the country's intelligence community. Under the direction of the Joint Intelligence Committee , it works alongside the Security Service , Government Communications Headquarters...
in November 2009.
Born in
WarwickWarwick ) is the county town of Warwickshire, England. The town lies upon the River Avon, 18 km south of Coventry and 4 km west of Leamington Spa , with a population of 25,434 ..-Culture:Warwick hosts annual festivals ranging from the Spoken Word to Classical and...
, Sawers was brought up in a family of five children in Bath and educated at the City of Bath Boys' School (which became
Beechen Cliff SchoolBeechen Cliff School is a boys` secondary school in Bath, Somerset, in England. There are around 800 boys in years 7–11 and a co-educational sixth form of over 200 students...
before he left), where he still holds the 440 yards hurdles school record.
Sir (Robert) John Sawers,
KCMGThe Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent whilst he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III. It is named in honour of two military saints, St. Michael and St...
(born 26 July 1955) is a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
diplomatA diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organisation. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...
. He is the current British Permanent Representative to the United Nations (
UNThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
) since August 2007. He is due to take up his new role as Chief of
MI6The Secret Intelligence Service , colloquially known as MI6 is the United Kingdom's external intelligence agency, part of the country's intelligence community. Under the direction of the Joint Intelligence Committee , it works alongside the Security Service , Government Communications Headquarters...
in November 2009.
Background
Born in
WarwickWarwick ) is the county town of Warwickshire, England. The town lies upon the River Avon, 18 km south of Coventry and 4 km west of Leamington Spa , with a population of 25,434 ..-Culture:Warwick hosts annual festivals ranging from the Spoken Word to Classical and...
, Sawers was brought up in a family of five children in Bath and educated at the City of Bath Boys' School (which became
Beechen Cliff SchoolBeechen Cliff School is a boys` secondary school in Bath, Somerset, in England. There are around 800 boys in years 7–11 and a co-educational sixth form of over 200 students...
before he left), where he still holds the 440 yards hurdles school record. He studied Physics and Philosophy at the
University of NottinghamThe University of Nottingham is a public research university in the city of Nottingham, England, with further campuses in Ningbo, China and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia...
, and spent periods at the Universities of
St AndrewsThe University of St Andrews is the oldest university in Scotland and third oldest in the English-speaking world, having been founded between 1410 and 1413...
,
WitwatersrandThe University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg is a leading South African university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University...
and
HarvardHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
. His interests include theatre, hiking and sport, especially tennis and cycling. His wife Shelley is a teacher. They have three grown-up children.
Career
Sawers was previously Political Director at the
Foreign and Commonwealth OfficeThe Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO, is the British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...
, a post he held since August 2003. In this post he advised the Foreign Secretary on political and security issues worldwide, and negotiated on behalf of the Foreign Secretary with international partners in the
G8The Group of Eight is a forum, created by France in 1975, for governments of the six richest countries in the world: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 1976, Canada joined the group...
, EU and the UN. He was particularly closely involved in policy on
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
,
IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
,
AfghanistanThe Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
and the
BalkansThe Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
. Prior to this job he served two years in the
Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, as Ambassador to Cairo 2001-03, and, for three months he was the British Government’s Special Representative in Baghdad.
Sawers headed the British team in the EU-3 negotiations over Iran's nuclear program, utilising his scientific background on nuclear matters.
From January 1999 – Summer 2001, he was Foreign Affairs Adviser to Prime Minister
Tony BlairAnthony Charles Lynton "Tony" Blair is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
, dealing with all aspects of Foreign and Defence Policy, and working closely with international counterparts. The period included the
KosovoKosovo is a disputed territory in the Balkans. Its majority is governed by the partially-recognised Republic of Kosovo , a self-declared independent state which has de facto control over the territory; the exceptions are some Serb enclaves...
conflict. He also worked on
Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and it is situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
and the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.
From 1995 – 1998, he was in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He spent a year as an International Fellow at Harvard University and then joined the British Embassy in Washington where he headed the Embassy team dealing with foreign and defence policy issues.
This came immediately after being Principal Private Secretary to Foreign Secretary
Douglas HurdDouglas Richard Hurd, Baron Hurd of Westwell, CH, CBE, PC , is a senior British Conservative politician and novelist, who served in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major between 1979 and his retirement in 1995...
, a post he held for two and a half years. The period was dominated by war in
BosniaBosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( or (Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian Latin: Bosna i Hercegovina; Serbian Cyrillic: Босна и Херцеговина) is a country in Southeast Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula...
, crises in the Middle East, and the debate in Britain on the
European UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 Member States, located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community...
.
In his early career, Sawers worked in
YemenYemen , officially the Republic of Yemen is a country located on the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia...
and
SyriaSyria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south and Israel to the southwest....
, which according to some reports was on behalf of
MI6The Secret Intelligence Service , colloquially known as MI6 is the United Kingdom's external intelligence agency, part of the country's intelligence community. Under the direction of the Joint Intelligence Committee , it works alongside the Security Service , Government Communications Headquarters...
. He was in
South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland, while Lesotho is an independent country surrounded by South Africa.Modern...
from 1988-91 during the first part of the transition from apartheid. Between spells overseas, he worked in London, mainly on EU business.
Sawers was announced as the new chief of
MI6The Secret Intelligence Service , colloquially known as MI6 is the United Kingdom's external intelligence agency, part of the country's intelligence community. Under the direction of the Joint Intelligence Committee , it works alongside the Security Service , Government Communications Headquarters...
the British Secret Intelligence Service on 16 June 2009. He succeeds Sir
John ScarlettSir John McLeod Scarlett, KCMG, OBE is Director General of the British Secret Intelligence Service . Prior to this appointment, he had chaired the Cabinet Office Joint Intelligence Committee .-Biography:...
and he will take up his new appointment in November 2009. In July 2009 his family details were removed from the social networking site
FacebookFacebook is a global social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Users can add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. Additionally, users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and...
.
Sawers is a governor of the
Ditchley FoundationThe Ditchley Foundation is a British organisation based at Ditchley House near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, which aims to promote international relations, especially Anglo-American relations, through a programme of around fifteen annual conferences on matters of international interest...
which aims to promote international, especially Anglo-American, relations.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office career timeline
- 2007–2009 British Permanent Representative to the United Nations
- 2003–2007 FCO, Director General for Political Affairs
- 2003–2003 Baghdad, UK Special Representative
- 2001–2003 Cairo, Ambassador
- 1999–2001 Foreign Policy Advisor to Prime Minister
- 1996–1999 Washington, Counsellor for Foreign and Defence Policy
- 1995–1996 Harvard, sabbatical
- 1993–1995 FCO, Principal Private Secretary to Foreign Secretary
- 1991–1992 FCO, Head of EU Presidency Planning Unit
- 1988–1991 Pretoria/Cape Town, First Secretary
- 1986–1987 FCO, Private Secretary to Minister of State
- 1984–1986 FCO, Desk Officer EU Department
- 1982–1984 Damascus, Political Officer
- 1977–1982 FCO
Offices held