Chris Patten

 

Lord Patten is Chancellor of Oxford and Newcastle Universities, he is Chairman of the International Crisis Group, which atttempts to identify and prevent potential conflicts. He is also the UK Co-Chair of the UK-India Round Table.

Lord Patten was appointed Governor of Hong Kong in April 1992, a position he held until 1997, overseeing the return of Hong Kong to China. He was Chairman of the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland set up under the Good Friday Peace Agreement, which reported in 1999.

In September 1999 he was appointed European Commissioner for External Relations, a post he held until November 2004. On leaving office in Brussels he was made a life peer and took his seat in the House of Lords in January 2005.

In 1998, he wrote East and West, a book on Asia and its relations with the rest of the world. His latest book Out of Order: Surviving the 21st Century, will be published in late 2008