Field Marshal Charles Ronald Llewelyn Guthrie, Baron Guthrie of Craigiebank, GCB, LVO, OBE, DL, former Chief of the Defence Staff, comes to Arcanum having served as the leading figure in the U.K.’s military; in his role as Senior Advisor, Lord Guthrie leverages his insights on security and defense matters, advising on risk management strategies and contributing to the overall decision-making within the company.
Field Marshal Guthrie provided leadership and direction to the U.K.’s Armed Forces over his long and distinguished career, first with the Welsh Guards in Germany and Northern Ireland, and then with the SAS in the Middle East, Malaysia and East Africa. He was also involved in the NATO Partnership for Peace after the fall of the Berlin Wall, which advised former Soviet satellites such as Poland, Hungary and the Baltic States how to restructure their forces to cooperate with NATO. This culminated in his appointment as Chief of General Staff, and later, his appointment as Chief of Defence Staff.
Lord Guthrie has held a number of senior staff appointments in the Army, including as Commander of the 1st British Corps, the Northern Army Group and the British Army of the Rhine (from 1992 to 1994), before becoming the Chief of the General Staff (from 1994 to 1997) and Chief of the Defense Staff (from 1997 to 2001). He served for ten years as Colonel Commandant of the Intelligence Corps and he was Colonel Commandant of the SAS from 2001 to 2010. He is currently Colonel of the Life Guards, Gold Stick to Her Majesty the Queen.
Since he left the Active List, he has been a Director of NM Rothschild and Sons from 2001 to 2011 and a Director of Sciens Capital, Colt Defense, Petropavlovsk and Gulf Keystone Petroleum in Kurdistan; a Council Member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies; a Visiting Professor and Honorary Fellow of King’s College London University; and Chairman of the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives at King’s College London.
He is Chairman of the Hospital of St. John and St. Elizabeth and St. John’s Hospice, Action Medical Research and the Federation of London Youth Clubs. He is Chancellor of Liverpool Hope University. Lord Guthrie is a Crossbench Peer.
He is based in the Company’s London office.