Advisory Board

Gordon Barrass is a Visiting Professor at LSE IDEAS and a former Chief of the Assessments Staff.

Sir Colin Budd served in HM Diplomatic Service from 1967-2005. He was Assistant Private Secretary to the Minister Without Portfolio from 1968-69, and to the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary from 1984-87; Chef de Cabinet to the Vice President of the European Commission from 1993-95; Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee and Head of the Overseas and Defence Committee of the Cabinet Office from 1996-97; Deputy Under Secretary of State (Europe and Economic) of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1997-2001; and HM Ambassador to the Netherlands from 2001-5.

John Hughes was a British career diplomat for 35 years serving mainly in the Americas, together with secondments to the Cabinet Office, BAE Systems, and Shell. His final postings were as Ambassador to Venezuela and then to Argentina. In retirement he has been Chair of the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission, Chair of Canning House, a Robin Humphreys Research Fellow at the School of Advanced Study, London University, and a Visiting Senior Fellow at LSE. 

Julian Miller is a Visiting Professor at LSE IDEAS.

Richard Mottram is a former chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee.

Jonathan Powell was Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Tony Blair from 1997 to 2007.

Susan Scholefield held a distinguished career in the Civil Service.

Cato Stonex is founder and Director of Taube Hodson Stonex Partners. 

Lord Wallace of Saltaire an Emeritus Professor in the Department of International Relations at the London School of Economics and has a long distinguished record in British politics. He was made a peer in 1995 and became the Liberal Democrat spokesman on Foreign Affairs and Defence. 

Gideon Rachman is the chief foreign affairs commentator for the Financial Times, where he authors a weekly column on foreign affairs and feature articles. Before joining the Financial Times in 2006, he was a senior editor and correspondent for The Economist and BBC World Service presenter. He has worked as a foreign correspondent in Washington, Brussels, and Bangkok, and is the author of Zero-Sum World.

Emmanuel Roman is the CEO of PIMCO.

Danny Quah is the Li Ka Shing Professor of Economics at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Previously he was Director of the LSE Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre.

Leslie Vinjamuri is Director of the Centre on Conflict, Rights and Justice and a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in International Relations at SOAS, University of London. Leslie is also Chair of the International Relations Speaker Series at SOAS. Her research areas include transatlantic relations, US foreign policy, the politics of international intervention, human rights and justice, and UN Security Council Diplomacy.