John Kerr, Baron Kerr of Kinlochard

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John Kerr, Baron Kerr of Kinlochard

John Olav Kerr, Baron Kerr of Kinlochard GCMG (born February 22, 1942 in Grantown-on-Spey , Moray , Scotland) is a British diplomat and politician who, among other things, was and has been permanent representative to the European Union and ambassador to the USA 2004 member of the House of Lords as Life Peer .

Life

Diplomatic career and promotion to ambassador

After visiting the Glasgow Academy and study of historical sciences at Pembroke College of Oxford University , which he in 1963 with a Bachelor of Arts graduated (BA History), joined Kerr in 1966 in the Foreign Service and was in the years to use in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) as well as at the diplomatic missions in Moscow and Rawalpindi . After a continued use on FCO and the Treasury ( Treasury ) he was from 1981 to 1984 first private secretary of the then Chancellor of the Exchequer Geoffrey Howe and Nigel Lawson . After he was head of the office at the US Embassy , he served as Assistant Undersecretary of State in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1987 to 1990 and was named Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George in 1987 for his services to date .

In 1990, David Hannay was appointed permanent representative of Great Britain to the European Union with the rank of ambassador. He held this office until he was replaced by Stephen Wall in 1995 and was ennobled as Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George in 1991 , which led to the addition of "Sir" to his name. In 1995 he succeeded Robin Renwick, Baron Renwick of Clifton, as Ambassador to the USA and held this position until he was replaced by Christopher Meyer in 1997. He was then from 1997 to 2002 as the successor to John Cole Permanent Undersecretary of the FCO and at the same time head of the foreign service. In 2001 he was raised to the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St. George. Michael Jay followed him in 2002 as Permanent Undersecretary of State of the FCO and Head of the Foreign Service.

From 2002 to 2003 he was Secretary General of the European Convention . In addition to his diplomatic work, Kerr was a trustee of the Rhodes Trust from 1997 to 2010 and of the National Gallery in London from 2002 to 2010 . He was also a member of the Board of Directors of Shell Transport and Trading Co from 2002 to 2005, of the Scottish American Investment Company since 2002 and of the Rio Tinto Group since 2003 .

Member of the House of Lords and functions in the private sector

By a letters patent dated June 30, 2004, Kerr was raised to life peer as Baron Kerr of Kinlochard , of Kinlochard in Perth and Kinross. Shortly after its introduction was carried out ( Introduction ) as a member of the House of Lords . In the upper house he belongs to the group of so-called crossbenchers .

Subsequently, Lord Kerr, who was Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Royal Dutch Shell plc between 2005 and 2012, was Trustee of the Fulbright Commission from 2004 to 2009 and has been Trustee of the Carnegie Trust since 2005 . He also served as Chairman of Imperial College London from 2005 to 2011 and as a member of the House of Lords Committee for the European Union from 2006 to 2010 .

Since 2008 he has also been chairman of the Center for European Reform and since 2012 deputy chairman of the board of ScottishPower , after having been a board member of this power company since 2009.

Since 2005 he has participated in each of the annual Bilderberg conferences as a representative of the Shell mineral oil company and has been a member of the steering committee for a while.

In November 2016 he caused a stir when he accused supporters of the Brexit campaign of stoking xenophobia and spoke out in favor of immigration:

"We native Brits are so bloody stupid that we need an injection of intelligent people, young people from outside who come in and wake us up from time to time."

"We native Brits are so terribly stupid that we need a refresher with intelligent young people from outside who come in and wake us up from time to time"

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Charlie Skelton: "Bilderberg 2014: George Osborne and the man at the center of everything" The Guardian of June 2, 2014
  2. ↑ Laura Hughes: "UK needs migration because Britons are 'so bloody stupid', says peer who wrote Article 50 of the Lisbon treaty" The Telegraph of November 18, 2016
personal data
SURNAME Kerr, John, Baron Kerr of Kinlochard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kerr, John Olav, Baron Kerr of Kinlochard (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British politician and diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH February 22, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Grantown-on-Spey , Moray , Scotland