Sir Peter Westmacott served as British Ambassador to the United States from 2012 to 2016. Following his diplomatic service, he spent a semester at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government teaching and writing.
Over his 43-year career in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, he also served as Ambassador to France (2007–2012) and Türkiye (2002–2006), with earlier postings including Iran before the 1979 revolution and a secondment to the European Commission in Brussels. He was Director for the Americas (1997–2000) and Deputy Under Secretary of State for the Wider World (2000–2001), and from 1990 to 1993, he was Deputy Private Secretary to HRH The Prince of Wales.
In the private sector, Sir Peter was an Independent Non-Executive at EY (2017–2022) and Chair of Tikehau Capital UK (2022–2024). He currently serves as a non-executive director of We.Soda, Ciner Glass, and Volex Plc.
He is a Distinguished Ambassadorial Fellow at the Atlantic Council, a Senior Adviser at Chatham House, and the author of They Call It Diplomacy: Forty Years of Representing Britain Abroad. Sir Peter is also an Honorary Fellow of New College, Oxford, and a regular contributor to radio and television news programmes.