We are delighted to announce the appointment of the Rt Hon Lord Robertson of Port Ellen KT GCMG HonFRSE PC and the Rt Hon Lord Hammond of Runnymede PC as co-chairs of Global Strategy Forum.
Making the announcement, Johan Eliasch, GSF’s President, said ‘I am very pleased that George and Philip have both agreed to become co-chairs of Global Strategy Forum. While there is of course no possibility of replacing Lord Lothian, our Founder Chairman, who over nearly two decades nurtured and supported GSF to create such a unique and very special organisation, I know that with George and Philip on board, GSF will continue to uphold Michael’s founding aims of an open forum for debate and to match the very high standards he set. As we approach our 20th anniversary next year, we are privileged to have two politicians of such exceptional calibre at the helm, to take GSF forward very much in this spirit, to build on Michael’s legacy, and to ensure that we go from strength to strength.’
Biographies
Rt Hon Lord Robertson of Port Ellen KT GCMG HonFRSE PC
Lord (George) Robertson is Chancellor of the University of Dundee, Vice -Patron of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. He is a Senior Counsellor with The Cohen Group (Washington DC) (under suspension during the SDR) He leads the UK Government’s Strategic Defence Review. He was the 10th Secretary General of NATO and Chairman of the North Atlantic Council from 1999-2003 and UK Secretary of State for Defence from 1997-1999. He was Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland in the Shadow Cabinet from 1992-1997 and Principal Opposition Spokesman on Europe from 1983-92. He was named Joint Parliamentarian of the Year in 1992. He was Member of Parliament for Hamilton and then Hamilton South from 1978 -99 and joined the House of Lords in 1999. He became a member of His Majesty’s Privy Council in 1997. He was born in Port Ellen, Islay of Islay, Scotland and educated at Dunoon Grammar School and Queens College, University of St Andrews when it became the University of Dundee where he chose to take his MA(Hons) Economics degree. He is a Trustee of the British Forces Foundation, an Elder Brother of Trinity House, Chairs the Ohrid Group (friends of North Macedonia), is Senior Adviser to 5654 Consultancy (under suspension during the SDR), was a member of the House of Lords Select Committee on International Affairs and Defence, and previously served on the Constitution Committee and the Select Committee on Risk Management and Assessment. He is a Senior Adviser to Chatham House and is on the Advisory Council of the Centre for European Reform, and the International Advisory Board of the US Atlantic Council. He is Patron of the Leighton Library, Dunblane. Former positions include Chair of the Ditchley Foundation, the FIA Foundation and of the John Smith Memorial Trust, Vice Chair of the British Council and the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, a Joint President of Chatham House, a Governor of the Scottish Police College, a Board Member of the Scottish Development Agency and the Scottish Tourist Board, Trustee of the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust and Hon Colonel of the London Scottish Regiment. He was a Prime Ministerial appointee to the Advisory Board of the commemorations of World War One. He co-chaired in 2019 with former French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, a Joint Kings College/Institut Montagne study on British French defence cooperation. He co-Chaired in 2008 with Paddy Ashdown, a Commission on National Security. In the private sector he was Deputy Chair of TNK-BP (BP’s Russian Joint Venture) and Chaired its Audit Committee, was Deputy Chair of Cable and Wireless plc, and a Non-Executive Director of the Weir Group plc (where he was Senior Independent Director), the Smiths Group plc and Monaco Telecom SA. He was short-listed in the Sunday Times Non-Executive Director Awards. He has a number of Honorary Doctorates including from Dundee, St Andrews, Bradford, Lincoln, Robert Gordon, Glasgow Caledonian, Cranfield and Stirling Universities, the European University of Armenia and the National Academies of Azerbaijan and Kyrgystan. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a Fellow of the Royal College of Defence Studies. He is an Honorary Professor at Stirling University and Visiting Professor at Kings College, London. He is one of the sixteen Knights of the Thistle (KT), former Chancellor and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG), and among several high international honours received, he was awarded the highest American civilian honour, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2003. He is married to Sandra, lives in Dunblane, Scotland has three grown up children, five grandchildren and has published two books of photographs. He has qualified as a Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society.
The Rt Hon Lord Hammond of Runnymede PC was a UK Cabinet minister and key member of the British Government for almost a decade. Leading four departments over nine years, and rising to the second most powerful job in government, he is one of only three people to serve continuously in the UK cabinet from 2010 to 2019, serving under Prime Ministers David Cameron and Theresa May. Taking on the role of Chancellor of the Exchequer shortly after the 2016 Brexit Referendum, Hammond took charge of the UK economy at a time of unprecedented uncertainty. Philip Hammond has always believed that nobody voted for Brexit with a view to becoming poorer or less secure, and thus that the best way of delivering the result of the referendum is to negotiate a deal with the European Union that allows a continued close economic partnership, even after the UK leaves the EU. He fought strongly for this approach within the cabinet and has continued to do so since leaving government. He also focused on the needs of business and particularly the need to protect London’s global financial markets. Hammond has been especially focused on the challenges faced by developed economies, specifically: the technological revolution and how it is already transforming the way we work and live our lives; climate change and how to harness the market economy to deliver decarbonisation; demographic shifts and the challenges of an ageing population, and particularly in the UK, the challenge of raising productivity. Through his roles as Chancellor and as Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond has considerable experience of working with China, and clear views about how to manage the integration of China as a major economic and strategic power into the global system. He also has strong connections in the Gulf region. He was part of the ‘E3+3’ team that negotiated the JCPOA nuclear arms control deal with Iran in 2015. During his tenure as Defence and then Foreign Secretary, Hammond built strong links with the US and other allied counterparts, both civilian and military, and was a frequent visitor to Afghanistan during the campaign. Hammond’s experience as Chancellor and as Foreign and Defence Secretary give him a strong grasp of the strategic issues facing the Western Alliance, as well as the economic and scientific and technological challenges. He grew up in Essex, and studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at University College, Oxford. Before entering Parliament in 1997, he had a wide-ranging business career across a number of sectors including healthcare, oil and gas and property, in the UK and in Europe. He stepped down as the Member of Parliament for Runnymede and Weybridge in November 2019 after 22 years serving the Surrey constituency. He has sat in the House of Lords as a Conservative peer since 30th September 2020.