Stephen John Wordsworth

LVO The Royal Victorian Order (french: Ordre royal de Victoria) is a dynastic order of knighthood established in 1896 by Queen Victoria. It recognises distinguished personal service to the British monarch, Canadian monarch, Australian monarch, o ...

CMG (born 1955) is a former British diplomat, now executive director of the

Council for Assisting Refugee Academics The Council for At-Risk Academics (CARA) is a charitable British organisation dedicated to assisting academics in immediate danger, those forced into exile, and many who choose to remain in their home countries despite the serious risks they face ...

Biography

Wordsworth was born in

Port Talbot Port Talbot (, ) is a town and community in the county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, situated on the east side of Swansea Bay, approximately from Swansea. The Port Talbot Steelworks covers a large area of land which dominates the south ...

South Wales South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...

, and educated at St John's School

Porthcawl Porthcawl (, ) is a town and community on the south coast of Wales in the county borough of Bridgend, west of the capital city, Cardiff and southeast of Swansea. Historically part of Glamorgan and situated on a low limestone headland on the So ...

Epsom College Epsom College is a co-educational independent school on Epsom Downs, Surrey, England, for pupils aged 11 to 18. It was founded in 1853 as a boys' school to provide support for poor members of the medical profession such as pensioners and orpha ...

and

Downing College, Cambridge Downing College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge and currently has around 650 students. Founded in 1800, it was the only college to be added to Cambridge University between 1596 and 1869, and is often described as the olde ...

, where he studied German and Russian (MA). He joined the

Foreign and Commonwealth Office The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, department of the Government of the United Kingdom. Equivalent to other countries' Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ministries of fore ...

(FCO) in 1977. He served abroad in Moscow in

Leonid Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev; uk, links= no, Леонід Ілліч Брежнєв, . (19 December 1906– 10 November 1982) was a Soviet Union, Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Gener ...

’s last years, in

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...

through two military coups, in

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

during the process of

German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...

and at

Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) is the military headquarters of the NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Allied Command Operations (ACO) that commands all NATO operations worldwide. ACO's and SHAPE's commander ...

as a Political Adviser to

SACEUR The Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) is the commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Allied Command Operations (ACO) and head of ACO's headquarters, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE). The commander is ...

George Joulwan George Alfred Joulwan (born November 16, 1939, Pottsville, Pennsylvania) is a retired United States Army general who served for 36 years. He finished his military career as the Commander-in-Chief of the United States European Command and NATO' ...

and

Wesley Clark Wesley Kanne Clark (born December 23, 1944) is a retired United States Army officer. He graduated as valedictorian of the class of 1966 at West Point and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford, where he obtained a degree ...

for three years during NATO's

IFOR The Implementation Force (IFOR) was a NATO-led multinational peace enforcement force in Bosnia and Herzegovina under a one-year mandate from 20 December 1995 to 20 December 1996 under the codename ''Operation Joint Endeavour''. Background NATO ...

and

SFOR The Stabilisation Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina (SFOR) was a NATO-led multinational peacekeeping force deployed to Bosnia and Herzegovina after the Bosnian war. Although SFOR was led by NATO, several non-NATO countries contributed troops. It ...

operations in

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

. In London, he held a range of posts in the FCO and Cabinet Office, including as FCO Section Head for relations with

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

as the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...

came down, and as FCO Head of Department dealing with the

Western Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the whol ...

when

Slobodan Milosevic Slobodan ( sr-Cyrl, Слободан) is a Serbo-Croatian masculine given name which means "free" (''sloboda'' / meaning "freedom, liberty") used among other South Slavs as well. It was coined by Serbian liberal politician Vladimir Jovanović w ...

was overthrown. His last two overseas posts were as Minister/Deputy Head of Mission in Moscow during

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...

’s presidency, and as ambassador in

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

. He had a high media profile in Serbia, and was the first foreign Ambassador in Belgrade to start blogging on current affairs. In 1992 he was honoured by the Queen, being appointed

Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order The Royal Victorian Order (french: Ordre royal de Victoria) is a dynastic order of knighthood established in 1896 by Queen Victoria. It recognises distinguished personal service to the British monarch, Canadian monarch, Australian monarch, o ...

(LVO) for his part in the organisation of her State Visit that year to Germany. At the same time he was awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. He was made a

Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George IV, George IV, Prince of Wales, while he was acting as prince regent for his father, George III, King George III. ...

(CMG) in

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

. After leaving the FCO, Wordsworth joined the

(CARA) as executive director in 2012. Founded as the

Academic Assistance Council The Council for At-Risk Academics (CARA) is a charitable British organisation dedicated to assisting academics in immediate danger, those forced into exile, and many who choose to remain in their home countries despite the serious risks they face ...

in 1933 by

William Beveridge William Henry Beveridge, 1st Baron Beveridge, (5 March 1879 – 16 March 1963) was a British economist and Liberal politician who was a progressive and social reformer who played a central role in designing the British welfare state. His 194 ...

, A V Hill and others, to assist Jewish and other academics forced to flee the Nazi regime, CARA now works with a network of some 70 universities in the UK to support academics from all over the world who have been forced to flee their home countries by discrimination, violence and death threats, at the hands of repressive regimes and extremist groups. CARA also operates overseas programmes to support academics in Iraq and Zimbabwe. Wordsworth was a member of the first cohort to take the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

'' non-executive director Certificate course, graduating in 2012 . He is also a member of the British-Serbian Chamber of Commerce and of

Northchapel Northchapel is a village and civil parish in Chichester District in West Sussex, England. It stands on the A283 road just south of the Surrey border, around 9 km north of Petworth. The village is believed to have taken its name from a churc ...

Parish Council,Northchapel Parish Council webpage
/ref> in

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ar ...

. His wife, Nichole, was also a member of the British Diplomatic Service. They have one son.

Career

2012 – date: Executive Director, CARA (Council for Assisting Refugee Academics) 2006 – 2010: British Ambassador, Belgrade, Serbia 2003 – 2005: Deputy Head of Mission, British Embassy, Moscow, Russia 1999 – 2002: Head, Western Balkans Department, FCO 1994 – 1998: Political Adviser to the NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Mons, Belgium 1990 – 1994: British Embassy, Bonn, Germany 1988 – 1990: Section Head, FCO, for relations with the GDR and for Allied responsibilities in Berlin under Quadripartite status, later for German Unification 1986 – 1988: Cabinet Office, London 1983 – 1986: British High Commission, Lagos, Nigeria 1982 – 1983: Eastern European and Soviet Department, FCO 1981: Presidency Secretariat, UK Presidency of the European Community 1979 – 1981: British Embassy, Moscow, USSR 1977 – 1979: Eastern European and Soviet Department, FCO

References

External sources

* ''Who's Who'', 2009, A & C Black, London, page 2562 * The Diplomatic Service List 2004, The Stationery Office, London, page 336
Council for Assisting Refugee Academics Website

British Serbian Chamber of Commerce Website

Northchapel Village Website

British Embassy Belgrade Website

British Embassy Moscow Website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wordsworth, Stephen 1955 births Living people People educated at Epsom College Alumni of Downing College, Cambridge Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Serbia Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany English chief executives People from Port Talbot People from Northchapel