Board of Advisors

The Board of Advisors of the OCGG helps the Board of Directors in providing strategic direction and intellectual guidance to the Council.

Chris Patten

Chairman, Board of Advisors

The Rt Hon the Lord Patten of Barnes, CH is the Chancellor of the University of Oxford. He was previously the European Commissioner for External Relations.

After becoming the youngest ever Director of the Conservative Party's Research Department in 1974, Mr Patten was elected MP for Bath. He was in the House of Commons from 1979 until April 1992, where he held a number of Ministerial posts, including Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science, Minister for Overseas Development, Secretary of State for the Environment, and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. From 1990-1992, he was Chairman of the Conservative Party.

Mr Patten served as Governor of Hong Kong from 1992-1997. After the Belfast Peace Agreement, he chaired the Independent Commission on Policing in Northern Ireland in 1998-1999. In 1999, he was appointed European Commissioner for External Relations.

Mr Patten has been Chancellor of the University of Oxford since 2003. He was an undergraduate at Balliol College, where he is now an Honorary Fellow. He has written two books, The Tory Case and East & West, and has seven honorary degrees.