John Sawers
British Ambassador to Egypt | |
---|---|
In office 2001–2003 | |
Prime Minister | Tony Blair |
Preceded by | Sir Graham Boyce |
Succeeded by | Sir Derek Plumbly |
Personal details | |
Born | Robert John Sawers 26 July 1955 civil servant |
Sir Robert John Sawers
Early life and education
Born in
After completing his degree at Nottingham he served as secretary of the students' union for a year.[9][10]
Career
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Sawers joined the
He was based in Pretoria and then Cape Town in South Africa from 1988 to 1991[11] during the first part of the transition from apartheid.[14] He returned to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office yet again to take up the roles of Head of European Union Presidency Planning Unit in 1991 and Principal Private Secretary to Douglas Hurd in 1993.[11]
From 1995 to 1998 he was in the
From January 1999 to summer 2001 he was Foreign Affairs Adviser to UK Prime Minister Tony Blair,[11] dealing with all aspects of foreign and defence policy and working closely with international counterparts.[14] The period included the Kosovo War. He also worked on the Northern Ireland peace process and the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. He reviewed the Iraq sanctions policy during this period and issued a document that included consideration of regime change.[15]
He served two years in the
In August 2003 Sawers was appointed Director General for Political Affairs at the
In 2007 he became British Permanent Representative to the United Nations.[11]
Sawers is a governor of the Ditchley Foundation, which aims to promote international, especially Anglo-American, relations.[18][19]
Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service
Sawers was announced as chief of the
During the
Sawers announced his intention to stand down from running the Secret Intelligence Service by November 2014, the fifth anniversary of his appointment.[2] He was replaced by Alex Younger.[25]
Advisory boards and professorship
After retiring as Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service Sawers became Partner and Chairman of Macro Advisory Partners,
Honours
Sawers was appointed a
Personal life
Sawers is married, with two sons and a daughter. He enjoys hiking, playing tennis, cycling and watching theatre.[5][9]
References
- ^ a b c Michael Evans (16 June 2009). "Outsider Sir John Sawers appointed new head of MI6". The Times. London. Retrieved 16 June 2009.
- ^ a b Ewen Macaskill; Richard Norton-Taylor (26 June 2014). "MI6 chief Sir John Sawers to step down". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 July 2014.
- ^ "Permanent Representative — Sir John Sawers". United Kingdom Mission to the United Nations, Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Archived from the original on 9 April 2009. Retrieved 16 June 2009.
- ^ A & C Black (2012). "SAWERS, Sir (Robert) John". Who's Who 2012, online edition. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
- ^ a b c "The 'James Bond' taking top job at MI6". BBC. 1 November 2009. Retrieved 1 September 2009.
- ^ "Ex-Bath pupil to head M16". Bath Chronicle. 17 June 2009. Archived from the original on 20 June 2009. Retrieved 17 June 2009.
- ^ Sawers family genealogy site (run by David Sawers, brother of John) - Stratford lineage
- ^ "Alumni: Sir John Sawers, former MI6 Chief: international security in a modern world". University of Nottingham. Retrieved 22 October 2018.
- ^ a b Barber, Lionel (19 September 2014). "Lunch with the FT: Sir John Sawers". Financial Times. Retrieved 22 October 2018.
- ^ "How safe are we?" (PDF). CONN3CT. University of Nottingham. Autumn 2015. p. 8. Retrieved 22 October 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Beckett: Senior Diplomatic Service Appointments". Foreign and Commonwealth Office. 10 December 2006. Archived from the original on 5 December 2007. Retrieved 16 June 2009.
- ^ "Lunch with Sir John Sawers". FT.com. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
- ^ "SIS - The Chief". Archived from the original on 15 April 2012. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
- ^ a b Laura Roberts (28 October 2010). "Sir John Sawers: profile of MI6 chief". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
- ^ a b Michael Savage (1 February 2010). "Plan to oust Saddam drawn up two years before the invasion". The Independent. Archived from the original on 13 June 2022. Retrieved 10 February 2010.
- ^ Kaveh L Afrasiabi (1 April 2006). "Iran: Options for a face-saving solution". Asia Times. Archived from the original on 10 April 2006. Retrieved 17 June 2009.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ Laura Trevelyan (16 June 2009). "New MI6 boss is 'excellent dancer'". BBC. Retrieved 17 June 2009.
- ^ "The Governors". Ditchley Foundation. Archived from the original on 28 September 2012.
- ^ a b "Sir John Sawers". RUSI. Retrieved 22 October 2018.
- ^ "MI6 chief's Facebook details cut". BBC News. BBC. 5 July 2009. Retrieved 5 July 2009.
- ^ "Iraq violence 'may have prompted UK rethink'". BBC News. BBC. 17 December 2009. Retrieved 29 January 2010.
- ^ "Quango chiefs' salaries revealed". BBC News. 2 July 2010. Retrieved 2 July 2010.
- ^ Richard Spencer (4 July 2014). "Britain drew up plans to build 100,000-strong Syrian rebel army". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
- ^ Robert Winnett (29 August 2013). "Syria crisis: No to war, blow to Cameron". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 1 January 2014.
- ^ "Appointment of the new Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6)". GOV.UK. Press releases. Her Majesty's Government. 3 October 2014. Retrieved 3 October 2014.
- ^ "Partners". Macro Advisory Partners. Archived from the original on 4 February 2015.
- ^ "Sir John Sawers". Newbridge Advisory. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
- ^ "War Studies Annual Lecture". King's College London. 2015. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
- ^ "Steering Committee". Bilderberg Meetings. Archived from the original on 22 August 2018. Retrieved 18 September 2017.
- ^ "Sir John Sawers". BP. 14 May 2015. Retrieved 22 October 2018.
- ^ "No. 54255". The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 December 1995. p. 3.
- ^ "No. 58358". The London Gazette (Supplement). 16 June 2007. p. 3.
- ^ "No. 61092". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2014. p. N3.
- ^ "New year honours 2015" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 December 2014. Retrieved 31 December 2014.