Catherine Ashton

Baroness Catherine Ashton served as the European Union’s first High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy from 2009 to 2014. She created the European External Action Service, overseeing its 140 Diplomatic Missions and 8 Military operations.  She chaired the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Development Councils of the EU.

On behalf of the UN Security Council, she coordinated the negotiations that resulted in the agreement with Iran on its nuclear programme. She also worked with the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo on the first Brussels agreement  for which they were  nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Previously, she was the first female EU Commissioner for Trade, concluding the EU’s free trade agreement with South Korea, resolving long standing trade issues with the USA and opening negotiations with Canada.

Before her European work She served as a Minister in the Departments of Education and Justice in the UK House of Lords. She was promoted to the Cabinet as Leader of the House of Lords and President of HM Queen’s Privy Council.  Her previous roles included Chair of Hertfordshire Health Authority and Director of Business in the Community, focusing on corporate social responsibility.

Her Awards include Georgetown University Trailblazer; Channel 4 Peer of the Year; House Magazine Minister of the Year; Atlantic Council Freedom Award; Black Sea-Caspian Sea International Fund Grand Prize and the first Stonewall Politician of the Year.  She holds diplomatic honours and honorary degrees from a number of countries and universities.  She was awarded the GCMG by HM Queen in 2015.  She is the first Chancellor of Warwick University.  In 2019 HM Queen appointed her the first woman King of Arms of the Order of St Michael and St George.

Baroness Ashton now chairs the Global Europe Programme at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC. She is a Senior Policy Advisor to Chatham House and a consultant to the Geneva-based Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue.  She advises on foreign and security policy.