Paul Lever was educated at
St Paul's School, London and
The Queen's College, Oxford. He joined the
Diplomatic Service on leaving Oxford in 1966. After a year at the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) he was sent to Finland to learn
Finnish and served at the embassy in Helsinki 1967–71. He later served as
chef de cabinet to
Christopher Tugendhat, then vice-president of the
EEC, and as head successively of the UN, Defence, and Security Policy departments in the FCO. He was head of the UK delegation to the
Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe in Vienna, with the rank of
Ambassador, 1990–92; assistant
Under-Secretary at the FCO 1992–94; chairman of the
Joint Intelligence Committee 1994–96; Director for EU and Economic Affairs at the FCO 1996–97; and Ambassador to Germany 1997–2003. Lever retired from the Diplomatic Service in 2003 and was Global Development Director,
RWE Thames Water, 2003–06 and Chairman of the
Royal United Services Institute 2004–09. == Book:
Berlin Rules ==