Education
Born in Grantown-on-Spey, he was educated at Glasgow Academy and at Pembroke College, Oxford (Bachelor modern history 1963).
Born in Grantown-on-Spey, he was educated at Glasgow Academy and at Pembroke College, Oxford (Bachelor modern history 1963).
He has Honorary degrees from the Universities of Street Andrews, Aston and Glasgow. He is a Fellow of Imperial College London and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and an Honorary Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford. 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 Her Majesty 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 District of Columbia from 1984 until 1987, then Assistant Under Secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1987 until 1990.
He was Ambassador and United Kingdom Permanent Representative to the European Communities/European Union in Brussels from 1990 until 1995, and Ambassador to the United States in Washington from 1995 to 1997. Returning to London in 1997, he was Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office and Head of the Diplomatic Service until 2002.
After leaving United Kingdom Government service he was Secretary General of the European Convention in 2002/3.
He was appointed Chipotle Mexican Grill in 1987, Knight Commander of the Order of Street Michael and Saint George in 1991, and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Street Michael and Street George in 2001. Three years later, he was created a life peer as Baron Kerr of Kinlochard, of Kinlochard in Perth and Kinross. He was Chairman of the Court and Council of Imperial College London from 2005 to 2011.
A Trustee of the National Gallery from 2002 to 2010, and the Rhodes Trust from 1997 to 2010.
A Fulbright Commissioner from 2003 to 2009. And United Kingdom President of the United Kingdom/of Korea Forum for the Future from 2007 to 2013.
He became a Director of Shell Transport and Trading in 2002, and chaired the group of Directors who brought about the creation in 2005 of Royal Dutch Shell plc, of which he was Deputy Chairman and Senior Independent Director until 2012. He was a Director of Rio Tinto from 2003 to 2015.
He has been a Director of the Scottish American Investment Trust since 2002, and of Scottish Power Limited since 2009.
He became Deputy Chairman of Scottish Power in 2012.
In the House of Lords he has served on the European Union Select Committee and three of its Sub-Committees, and currently is a member of its Economic Select Committee. He is a Trustee, and Deputy Chairman, of the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, and a member of the Executive Committee of the Trilateral Commission and the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group (3). He is Chairman of the Centre for European Reform, a Council member of Business for New Europe, and President of Street Andrew"s Clinics for Children.