Rt Hon Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, President
Biography
Lord Ashdown was elected President of UNICEF UK in July 2009.
He was born in New Delhi, grew up in Ulster and was educated at Bedford School. Between 1959 and 1972 he served as a Royal Marines Officer. He saw active service as a Commando Officer in Borneo and the Persian Gulf and then, after Special Forces Training in England in 1965, he commanded a Special Boat Section in the Far East. He went to Hong Kong in 1967 to undertake a full-time course in Chinese, returning to England in 1970 with a First Class interpretership in Mandarin. He was then given command of a Commando Company in Belfast.
In 1972 Paddy left the Royal Marines and joined the Foreign Office. He was posted to the British Mission to the United Nations in Geneva where he was responsible for Britain's relations with a number of United Nations organisations and took part in the negotiation of several international treaties and agreements between 1974 and 1976. He was also involved in some aspects of the European Security Conference (the Helsinki Conference). After leaving the Foreign Office Paddy worked in local industry in the Yeovil area. In 1981 went to work as a Youth Worker with the Dorset County Council Youth Service, where he was responsible for initiatives to help the young unemployed.
He stood as the Liberal Parliamentary candidate for the Yeovil constituency in 1979 and raised the Liberal vote there to its highest ever level. Shortly after entering Parliament in the 1983 General Elections, Paddy was appointed as the Liberal spokesman on Trade and Industry Affairs within the Liberal/SDP Alliance team at the House of Commons. He became Education spokesman in January 1987. He was elected Leader of the Liberal Democrats in July 1988 and was appointed as a Privy Councilor on 1 January 1989. Paddy stood down as the leader of the Liberal Democrats in 1999 and retired from the Commons in 2001. He was made a KBE in 2000 and a peer in 2001.
From 1978 until 2002, Paddy served on the Main Board of the Independent newspaper and on the international advisory board of Independent News and Media PLC. He also worked on the advisory board of a small venture capital firm, Catalyst, and served on the main board of Time Computers. He relinquished all these posts in 2002, on his appointment as High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina and the European Union Special Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
During the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Paddy was one of the leading advocates for decisive action by the international community. On his return to Britain in 2006, he was awarded the GCMG in the New Years Honours List for his work in Bosnia. He is now acknowledged as one of the foremost experts on the Balkans region in Europe. In mid 2008 he declined Gordon Brown’s invitation to join his Cabinet. Later that year, Paddy was asked by the US Government and the UN Secretary General to take up the post as the head of the International Mission in Afghanistan, but this was subsequently vetoed by the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai.
He is married to Jane and they have two children and three grandchildren.
