Background
His brother, Jonathan Powell, was chief of staff to Tony Blair throughout his period as Prime Minister from 1997 to 2007, and his father was Air Vice-Marshal John Frederick Powell.
His brother, Jonathan Powell, was chief of staff to Tony Blair throughout his period as Prime Minister from 1997 to 2007, and his father was Air Vice-Marshal John Frederick Powell.
Powell was educated at The Cathedral Choir School, Canterbury, The King"s School, Canterbury and New College, Oxford, from where he graduated in 1963 with a Bachelor in Modern History.
He served as a key foreign policy advisor to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher during the 1980s. Charles Powell joined the Her Majesty"s Diplomatic Service in 1963. His first posting was as Third Secretary to Helsinki in 1965, where he was promoted to Second Secretary.
In 1968, he returned to London, spending three years at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He was posted as First Secretary to Washington, District of Columbia in 1971, and became the Ambassador"s Private Secretary.
Subsequent postings were to Bonn in 1974 and, as Counsellor, to UKREP Brussels in 1980. He was seconded to 10 Downing Street and served as Private Secretary to Margaret Thatcher (1983 to 1990) and then as Private Secretary to John Major (1990 to 1991).
During his time working for Mrs Thatcher, he became one of her most trusted foreign policy aides, and helped broker the controversial al-Yamamah arms deal with Saudi Arabia. Since 1992 he has been an international businessman.
Using the experience gained during his years in government, he has picked up several directorships and consultancies.
He is chairman of Sagitta Asset Management Limited and the luxury goods company Louis Vuitton United Kingdom Limited. Prior to these positions, he was chairman of Phillips Fine Art Auctioneers and senior director of Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited. He has also held directorships of Caterpillar Incorporated., Moët Hennessy — Louis Vuitton Moet-Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Mandarin Oriental International Limited, Schindler Holding Limited, Tiphook plc, Textron Corporation and Yell Group PLC
He is also a signatory of the Henry Jackson Society.
In 2005, it was revealed that Powell had been acting as Tony Blair"s special envoy to Brunei, an unpaid role, for several years. This was controversial because Powell was on the payroll of British Aerospace Systems, and the company was at the time in dispute with Brunei over the purchase of three warships.
He currently sits as a life peer in the Although associated with the Conservative Party, Lord Powell sits as a crossbench peer. Tory! Tory!. Powell was portrayed by Terence Harvey in the 2004 British Broadcasting Corporation production of The Alan Clark Diaries and by James Fox in 2009"s Margaret.
Powell was interviewed about the rise of Thatcherism for the 2006 British Broadcasting Corporation television documentary series Tory!.