Sir Peter Westmacott was British Ambassador to the United States from January 2012 until January 2016. He then spent a semester at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government after being awarded fellowships at the Institute of Politics and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
During a career lasting almost 44 years, Peter was also UK Ambassador to Turkey from 2002-2006 and to France from 2007- 2012. He spent four years in Iran before the 1979 revolution and was then seconded to the European Commission in Brussels for 18 months. From 1990-93 he was Deputy Private Secretary to HRH The Prince of Wales (now King Charles III). He then began his first tour of duty in the Washington Embassy as Counsellor for Political and Public Affairs before being appointed Director Americas in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London in 1997.
As Ambassador in Washington, he was closely involved in the – ultimately unsuccessful – negotiations for a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the EU and United States. He engaged with BP and the Obama Administration to help secure a settlement following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. He promoted exports from the UK ranging from MBDA and Raytheon missiles to Airbus aircraft, sports cars, Scotch Whisky and British cheeses. In 2015 he led a team of ambassadorial colleagues from the Permanent Members of the UN Security Council in helping ensure that the JCPOA nuclear deal with Iran was not stillborn on Capitol Hill.
Peter is now Chairman of the UK subsidiary of Tikehau Capital, a global alternative asset management firm, and a non-executive director of We.Soda, the world’s largest producer of natural soda ash, Ciner Glass, Volex Plc, and Glasswall Holdings. He is a Senior Adviser at Chatham House and a Distinguished Ambassadorial Fellow of the Atlantic Council. He speaks regularly about foreign affairs at schools and colleges and on radio and television.
He is the author of “They Call it Diplomacy”, a personal memoir published by Head of Zeus in 2021, reprinted in paperback in 2022.