Christopher Hum Keynote Speaker

Sir Christopher Hum KCMG was the British Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China between 2002 and 2005. He joined HM Diplomatic Service in 1967, straight after reading Modern Languages at Pembroke College, Cambridge. The following year he was posted to Hong Kong to study Mandarin Chinese at Hong Kong University. Some 18 years of his diplomatic career were spent working in or on China and he continues as an analyst and commentator on Chinese affairs.

In the 1980s and 1990s Christopher was closely involved in the negotiations which led to the UK’s return of Hong Kong to China in 1997. Other diplomatic postings were in Brussels (European Communities), Paris, New York (United Nations) and Warsaw (as Ambassador from 1996 to 1998).

Christopher was Master of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, from 2006 to 2012 and remains a Life Fellow of the College. He is a member of the Advisory Committee of the China Policy Institute in the University of Nottingham and of the Executive Committee of the Great Britain-China Centre. He has served on the boards of businesses in the UK and China, and currently is a director of Laird plc.