Education
Paul Lever was educated at Street Paul"s School, London and The Queen"s College, Oxford.
Paul Lever was educated at Street Paul"s School, London and The Queen"s College, Oxford.
He joined the Diplomatic Service on leaving Oxford in 1966. After a year at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) he was sent to Finland to learn Finnish and served at the embassy in Helsinki 1967-1971. He later served as chef de cabinet to Christopher Tugendhat, then vice-president of the European Economic Community, and as head successively of the United Nations, Defence, and Security Policy departments in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He was head of the United Kingdom delegation to the Conference on Security and Company-operation in Europe in Vienna, with the rank of Ambassador, 1990-1992.
Assistant Under-Secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office 1992-1994.
Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee 1994-1996. Director for European Union and Economic Affairs at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office 1996-1997.
And Ambassador to Germany 1997–2003. Lever retired from the Diplomatic Service in 2003 and was Global Development Director, RWE Thames Water, 2003-2006 and Chairman of the Royal United Services Institute 2004-2009.