11 Facts About Sherard Cowper-Coles

Sherard Cowper-Coles left BAE Systems in 2013 and is a senior adviser to the group chairman and the group chief executive of HSBC.

Sherard Cowper-Coles is the son of Sherard Hamilton Cowper-Coles and Dorothy.

Sherard Cowper-Coles's grandfather, the metallurgist Sherard Osborn Cowper-Coles, was the son of naval inventor Captain Cowper Phipps Coles.

Sherard Cowper-Coles was educated at Freston Lodge School, New Beacon School, Tonbridge School and Hertford College, Oxford, where he read classics.

Sherard Cowper-Coles's father was Neil Elliott, a prominent land agent whose brother was the actor Denholm Elliott and whose father had been assassinated while serving as Solicitor-General to the Mandatory Government of Palestine in 1933 and who was buried in Mount Zion Cemetery, Jerusalem.

Sherard Cowper-Coles was next appointed Ambassador to Saudi Arabia in Riyadh, a post that he held until 2006.

Sherard Cowper-Coles attracted controversy in October 2008 when a leaked French diplomatic cable suggested he had been sharply critical of Karzai and US policy.

In 2011, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles became BAE Systems' international business development director, focusing on the Middle East and south-east Asia.

Sherard Cowper-Coles is a committee member of the Saudi-British Society.

Sherard Cowper-Coles is the chair at China-Britain Business Council, an organisation promoting trade relationships between China and the UK.

Sherard Cowper-Coles was appointed a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order in 1991 and made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 1997 Birthday Honours and a Knight Commander of the Order in the 2004 Birthday Honours.