John Jenkins was educated at
St Philip's Grammar School,
Birmingham,
The Becket School,
Nottinghamshire and
Jesus College, Cambridge where he gained a
BA and a doctorate (
PhD) in 1980. He joined the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in 1980 and served in
Abu Dhabi,
Kuala Lumpur and
Kuwait before being appointed
ambassador to
Burma 1999–2002;
Consul-General at
Jerusalem 2003–06; ambassador to
Syria 2006–07; Director, Middle East and North Africa at the FCO 2007–09; ambassador to
Iraq 2009–11; UK Special Representative to the
National Transitional Council of Libya May–October 2011, then briefly ambassador to
Libya October–November 2011; and ambassador to
Saudi Arabia from June 2012. At the end of January 2015 he retired from the Diplomatic Service and as of 27 January 2015 became Executive Director of the Middle East branch of the
International Institute for Strategic Studies, based in Bahrain. Jenkins was appointed LVO in 1989,
CMG in the
New Year Honours of 2003 and knighted KCMG in the
Queen's Birthday Honours of 2011. He is a Serving Brother of the
Order of St John of Jerusalem. ==References==