Adam Thomson (diplomat)

Sir Adam McClure Thomson KCMG (born 1 July 1955) is a Director of the European Leadership Network,[1] a pan-European think tank based in London. Sir Adam is a British former diplomat who served as Permanent Representative to NATO between 2014 and 2016.

For other people named Adam Thomson, see Adam Thomson.

Career

Adam McClure Thomson was educated at King's College School, Cambridge, Westminster School, Trinity College, Cambridge and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.[2] He joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in 1978 and served in Moscow, Brussels, Washington, D.C. and New Delhi as well as at the FCO in London. He was deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, with the rank of Ambassador, 2002–06; Director South Asia & Afghanistan at the FCO 2006–09 and High Commissioner to Pakistan 2010–14 before being appointed Permanent Representative to NATO in 2014.[3][4]

While in Pakistan, Thomson caused some controversy when he said that the country's government had failed to deliver on reform and called for a "radical change".[5]

Honours

Thomson was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 2009,[6] and knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 2014 New Year Honours.[7] He has been a member of the Dean's Alumni Leadership Council at Harvard Kennedy School.[8]

Family

Thomson is the eldest son of Sir John Thomson, also a diplomat. He is the grandson of Sir George Paget Thomson and the great-grandson of Sir J. J. Thomson, both winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics. He is married to Fariba Shirazi, a native of Iran who studied architecture in Tehran and art history in London, and has worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.[9] They have a son and two daughters.[3]

References
  1. "Sir Adam Thomson KCMG". European Leadership Network.
  2. Harvard Kennedy School – Classnotes, Winter 2013
  3. THOMSON, Adam McClure, Who's Who 2014, A & C Black, 2014; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2013
  4. Change of UK Permanent Representative to NATO, Foreign & Commonwealth Office, 5 December 2013
  5. UK envoy provokes cries of colonialism with blunt call for change in Pakistan, The Telegraph, London, 25 January 2013
  6. "No. 58929". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2008. p. 3.
  7. "No. 60728". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2013. p. 3.
  8. "Adam Thomson hosts first-ever UN alumni reception". Archived from the original on 8 February 2005. Retrieved 2014-05-11., DALC News, Harvard Kennedy School, 18 March 2004
  9. "ASG holds 'The Art of Extremes'". The News. Islamabad. 11 December 2012. Archived from the original on 12 May 2014.
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by
Robert Brinkley		 High Commissioner to Pakistan
2010–2014		 Succeeded by
Philip Barton
Preceded by
Dame Mariot Leslie		 Permanent Representative to NATO
2014–2016		 Succeeded by
Sarah MacIntosh
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