Mark Sedwill Keynote Speaker

Former Cabinet Secretary & Head of the Civil Service (2018-20)
UK National Security Adviser (2017-20)
Chairman of the Atlantic Futures Forum

Mark Sedwill's Biography

Mark Sedwill, Baron Sedwill of Sherborne GCMG FRGS, is a is cross-bench peer and a member of Parliament’s Joint Committee on national security.

Lord Sedwill is Chair of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) and of the Atlantic Future Forum (AFF). He is a non-executive director of Rothschild & Co (R&Co). He is Chair of R&Co Geopolitical Advisory and of R&Co Saudi Arabia. and a member of Temasek’s EMEA advisory group. He is a senior adviser for McKinsey & Company, Temasek and Rasmussen Global.

Lord Sedwill is President of the Special Forces Club and of the Special Boat Service Association, a Vice-President of the Royal Navy & Royal Marines Charities (RNRMC), and an Honorary Colonel in the Royal Marines. He is President of the Civil Service Retirement Association, and a Trustee of St Andrews University and of the RNLI.

Lord Sedwill chaired the 2021 G7 Panel on Global Economic Resilience. He was Cabinet Secretary & Head of the Civil Service (2018-20), National Security Adviser (2017-20), Permanent Secretary at the Home Office (2013-17), and British Ambassador and NATO Representative in Afghanistan (2009-11). Before that he had a diplomatic and security career serving in Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Cyprus and Pakistan. He was educated at St Andrews and Oxford Universities.

Lord Sedwill is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and of the Institute of Directors, an Honorary Fellow of Oxford University and of St Edmund Hall, Oxford. He is an Honorary Doctor of Laws of St Andrews University, and an Honorary Bencher of Middle Temple. He is also the recipient of several other awards and honours for national and international public service.

Global Governance

National Security

Civil Service

Foreign Affairs

Crisis & Strategic Leadership

He has operated at the very centre of UK national security and government as Cabinet Secretary, National Security Adviser and Permanent Secretary at the Home Office, shaping policy in periods of acute risk.
He helps leaders anticipate geopolitical shocks and build resilience, drawing on experience chairing the G7 Panel on Global Economic Resilience and advising boards on strategic risk.
He brings rare international credibility from frontline diplomatic and security roles, including serving as UK Ambassador and NATO Representative in Afghanistan and postings across the Middle East and South Asia.
He translates complex security and geopolitical dynamics into clear, actionable guidance for executives, informed by his work with institutions including IISS, McKinsey, Temasek and Rothschild & Co.
He equips senior audiences to navigate uncertainty with confidence, combining deep public-sector leadership with board-level insight into defence, intelligence and global markets.