John Olav Kerr, Baron Kerr of Kinlochard, GCMG (born 22 February 1942), a former diplomat, is Deputy Chairman of Royal Dutch Shell and an independent (cross-bench) member of the House of Lords.

Born in Grantown on Spey, he was educated at Glasgow Academy and at Pembroke College, Oxford (BA modern history 1963).

He served in the British Diplomatic Service from 1966 until 2002. This included postings at the British Embassy in Moscow, and at the High Commission in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. He was Private secretary to the Permanent Under Secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1974 until 1979, and was on secondment to HM Treasury from 1979 until 1984, during which time he was Principal Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1981 until 1984. He was Head of Chancery at the British Embassy in Washington DC from 1984 until 1987, then Assistant Under Secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1987 until 1990.

He was Ambassador and UK Permanent Representative to the European Communities/European Union in Brussels from 1990 until 1995, then Ambassador to the United States in Washington from 1995 to 1997. He returned to Britain in 1997 and was Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office and Head of the Diplomatic Service from 1997 until 2002. After leaving UK Government service he was Secretary General of the European Convention in 2002/3.

He has been a Director of Shell Transport and Trading since 2002, and chaired the group of Directors who brought about the creation^[1] in 2005 of Royal Dutch Shell plc, of which he became, and remains Deputy Chairman and Senior Independent Director. He has been a Director of the Scottish American Investment Trust since 2002, and of Rio Tinto plc since 2003. Since 2007 he has been a member of the Advisory Board of Scottish Power.

He is a Trustee of the Rhodes Trust (since 1997), the National Gallery (since 2002), the Fulbright Commission (since 2004), and the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland (since 2005); and is an executive committee member of the Trilateral Commission. He has been Chairman of the Court and Council of Imperial College London since January 2005, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He is Vice-President of the European Policy Centre, and a Council member of the Centre for European Reform and Business for New Europe.

He was appointed CMG in 1987, KCMG in 1991, and GCMG 2001. Three years later, in 2004, he was created a life peer as Baron Kerr of Kinlochard, of Kinlochard in Perth and Kinross. In the House of Lords he serves in the European Union Select Committee and its Economic and Financial Sub-Committee.

Notes & References

• Announcement of his introduction at the House of Lords House of Lords minutes of proceedings, 14 September 2004

1. ↑ see Nicholas Beale Constructive Engagement ISBN 0566087111 Ch 10

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