Tom Fletcher
Tom Fletcher is the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, OCHA. He started his official duties on 18 November 2024.
Prior to taking up this role, Fletcher was the Principal of Hertford College at Oxford (2020-2024) and Vice Chair of Oxford University’s Conference of Colleges (2022-2024). He was British Ambassador to Lebanon (2011-2015) and No 10 Foreign Policy Adviser to three UK Prime Ministers (2007-11).
Fletcher previously served as Global Strategy Director of the Global Business Coalition for Education (2015-2019) and as chair of the UK Creative Industries Federation (2015-2020). He was awarded a CMG in 2011.
Fletcher has worked closely with the United Nations during his diplomatic career in Africa, the Middle East and Europe, including leading a report on technology for the UN Secretary General (2017). He is the author of 'The Naked Diplomat' (2016), 'Ten Survival Skills for a World in Flux' (2022), and two novels, 'The Ambassador' (2022) and 'The Assassin' (2024). He has written for the Financial Times, Prospect, Foreign Policy Magazine, and presented a BBC series on democracy.
Fletcher holds a Master of Arts degree in Modern History (Oxford, 1998). He was Visiting Professor at New York University (2015-2020) and the Emirates Diplomatic Academy (2016-2019). He is fluent in English and French and has a good working knowledge of Arabic and Swahili.