Christopher Meyer

Former British ambassador to the United States

Christopher Meyer speaker, keynote speech, politics
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Sir Christopher Meyer was almost 40 years in the British Diplomatic Service. His career culminated as Ambassador to the United States during the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush presidencies. His five and a half years in Washington, which made him the longest-serving Ambassador to the USA since the Second World War, coincided with 9/11, the war in Afghanistan and the preparation for war in Iraq.

Before then he was Ambassador to Germany and had postings to Russia, Spain and the European Union in Brussels. He was also Press Secretary to Prime Minister John Major, Foreign Office Spokesman, and speech writer to three Foreign Secretaries.

Sir Christopher Meyer was knighted by Her Majesty The Queen in 1998. After his retirement from the Diplomatic Service in 2003, Sir Christopher Meyer chaired the Press Complaints Commission for six years until March 2009.

Sir Christopher Meyer is now a regular television, radio and newspaper commentator on international affairs and the media. In 2005 he published DC Confidential, a memoir of his time in the Diplomatic Service. In 2010, he published his latest book, “Getting Our Way: 500 Years of Adventure” and “Intrigue: the Inside Story of British Diplomacy”, and it was accompanied by a three-part TV series for BBC4. He also broadcast a documentary series on the Press for BBC Radio 4, called the The Watchdog and the Feral Beast.

Sir Christopher is an Honorary Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge University, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London. In 2010 was a visiting Professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and in 1988 a visiting Fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University.

He is a non-executive director of the Arbuthnot Banking Group and is Chairman of the Advisory Board of Pagefield, a public relations company. He is on the Advisory Board of British-American Business inc. He is a Freeman of the City of London and member of the Worshipful Company of Stationers.