Thomas Fletcher (diplomat)

Fletcher was born in Kent and educated at The Harvey Grammar School and Hertford College, Oxford, where he was awarded first class honours degree in modern history. At Oxford he was president of the college's Junior Common Room.

Fletcher joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and held diplomatic posts in Nairobi and Paris. He was also private secretary to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office ministers Baroness Amos and Chris Mullin.^[6] While in Kenya, he took part in a high-profile charity boxing match with the mayor of Nairobi, who had t-shirts printed saying "Fletcher goes home on a stretcher".^[7]

Between 2007 and 2011, Fletcher was the foreign policy and Northern Ireland adviser to Prime Ministers Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron.^[1] In his memoirs, Gordon Brown called him "indispensable and indefatigable."^[8] In his book For the Record, David Cameron wrote: "There was one man who would prove essential: Tom Fletcher. Tom became my support, sounding board and source of information about virtually every country on Earth".^[9]

From 2011 to 2015 Fletcher served as British Ambassador to Lebanon, where he pioneered a more open style of diplomacy, with many of his blogposts going viral (Dear Lebanon^[10] and Yalla Bye^[11]). The BBC made a documentary, The Naked Diplomat, about his work,^[12] which involved initiatives on refugee education, job creation^[13] and border security.^[14] The Daily Telegraph reported that he was behind a secret plan that prevented Islamic State from entering Lebanon from Syria.^[15]

In partnership with the Banque du Liban, Fletcher spearheaded the launch of the UK Lebanon Tech Hub, an international accelerator using London as a platform for Lebanese technology businesses to grow internationally.^[16] By December 2018, the hub had helped to grow 91 start-ups, raising more than $64 million in venture funding and creating more than 2,000 jobs in Lebanon and the United Kingdom.^[17]

Fletcher caused controversy by donating blood after a terrorist attack against the Iranian embassy in Beirut in 2013, and becoming a domestic worker to highlight migrant rights. He founded One Lebanon, an annual concert bringing together Lebanese celebrities from across the sectarian divide.^[18]

Arab News described him as "the anti-diplomat" because of his steadfast refusal to live up to the stereotype expected of the ambassadorial profession.^[19] He was commended by many commentators for his viral online farewell, which resurrected the old Foreign and Commonwealth Office tradition of the valedictory despatch.^[20] In December 2015 he was given the Lovie Special Achievement award^[21] for his use of social media while serving in Lebanon.

In October 2024 Fletcher was nominated by Keir Starmer to succeed Martin Griffiths as Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator^[2], the sixth Briton in a row to hold the role, despite efforts by some countries to have the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, appoint someone of a different nationality.^[1]

Fletcher's first book, The Naked Diplomat: Power and Statecraft in the Digital Age, was published by Harper Collins in 2016.^[22] Gordon Brown called it "diplomatic genius", and David Cameron wrote that it was "a great read from a brilliant diplomat". The Times called it "a brilliant, funny polemic ... a cracking read",^[23] and The Guardian called it "a call for us all to reconsider our place in society ... to be brave, creative, involved and connected".^[24]

He is also the author of Ten Survival Skills for a World in Flux (2022), The Ambassador (2022) and The Assassin (2024), and in 2017 published a report on the future of the United Nations in the digital age.^[25] In 2023 he presented a BBC series entitled The Battle for Liberal Democracy.^[26]

Fletcher was a visiting professor of International Relations at New York University,^[27] a visiting professor at the Emirates Diplomatic Academy,^[28] and an adviser to the Global Business Coalition for Education.^{[citation needed]} He became an Honorary Fellow of Hertford College,^[29] and from 2020 to 2024 served as Principal of the college.^[30][3]

Fletcher is the project director of Towards Global Learning Goals, a network that aims to create equal opportunities, develop the skills needed to thrive in a new economy, and make it easier for people on the move to adapt.^[31]

He chaired the international board of the Creative Industries Federation,^[32] and was a founding member of the Global Tech Panel. In 2018 he founded the Foundation for Opportunity to share ideas, skills and experience and support future leaders in delivering positive change.^[33]

He is married to Louise Fletcher, an Irish counselling psychologist, with whom has two sons. According to The Sunday Times^[34] and a video Fletcher recorded on social media,^[35] he collected a book of advice for his sons from world leaders, including Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, while working for 10 Downing Street.

• Personal website