Patrick Turner

Biography

Patrick Turner joined the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) in 1984 following a BA in Modern History at Merton College, Oxford. He held a number of policy and finance posts in the MOD and was Private Secretary to the Minister for the Armed Forces and then the Cabinet Secretary. From 1992-1996 he was Deputy Director of the NATO Secretary General’s Private Office, working for Manfred Wörner, Willy Claes and Javier Solana.

Promoted into the Senior Civil Service in 1998, Patrick was Director of the Strategic Defence Review Implementation Team, Director of Policy Planning (where he was responsible for publishing the post -9/11 ‘New Chapter’ to the UK’s Strategic Defence Review in 2002), Director Deterrent Options Policy (where he was responsible for publishing a White Paper on the future of the UK’s nuclear deterrent in 2006) and Head of the UK National Security Strategy Team in the Cabinet Office (which published the UK’s first National Security Strategy in 2008).
From 2008-2010 he was posted to the British Embassy in Washington.

He took up his current post of Deputy Permanent Representative in the UK Delegation to NATO in November 2011.