Talk with Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles KCMG LVO
“The future of a Rules-Based International Order”
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Thursday 20th February 2025
7pm (doors from 6:30pm)
Includes light refreshments
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Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles is a Senior Adviser at HSBC Holdings, having retired from full-time employment with the firm on 31 December 2023 after 10 years, initially as Senior Adviser to the Group Chairman and Group Chief Executive, and for the past eight years as Head of the Group’s Public and Government Affairs functions. He is Chair of the China-Britain Business Council.
Before HSBC Sherard worked for two and a half years as International Business Development Director at BAE Systems. Earlier he spent over 30 years in the British Diplomatic Service, which he joined straight from reading Classics at Oxford. He served in Cairo, Washington and Paris. He was also Principal Private Secretary to the UK Foreign Secretary, the late Robin Cook, and was Head of the Foreign Office Hong Kong Department from 1994 up to the handover to China in 1997. His final diplomatic jobs were as Ambassador to Israel (2001–2003), Ambassador to Saudi Arabia (2003–2007), Ambassador to Afghanistan (2007-2009), and the UK Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan (2009–2010).
Sherard was the first Chair of the Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery Trust, from November 2013 until December 2022, which raised £12m to restore and then run Sir John Soane’s “dream” country house. He is Honorary Vice President of the UK Financial Inclusion Commission; a Committee Member of The Hong Kong Association; and a Board Member of Asia House. He is an Ambassador for the Money Advice Trust, and for the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust. He is a member of the fundraising committee for Maggie’s Building Hope Campaign. He is an Honorary Fellow of Hertford College, Oxford, and has an honorary DLitt from the University of Westminster. He is President of the Jane Austen Society, and is a Liveryman of The Skinners’ Company and of the World Traders.
Sherard is the author of two books about his diplomatic experiences: Cables from Kabul and Ever the Diplomat. He speaks French and Arabic, some Hebrew and rudimentary Pashtu.
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