Board of Advisors

Sir William Charters Patey, KCMG is a former senior British diplomat whose career spanned some of the United Kingdom's most demanding postings across the Middle East and South Asia. Born in Edinburgh and educated at Trinity Academy and the University of Dundee, where he took a Master of Arts, he joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1975. An early posting to the Middle East Centre for Arabic Studies gave him the Arabic and regional grounding that would define the next four decades of his working life.

After serving as Head of the FCO's Middle East Department from 1999 to 2002, he was appointed Ambassador to Sudan (2002–2005), where his tenure coincided with the negotiations that produced the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. He then served as Ambassador to Iraq (2005–2006), leading the British mission in Baghdad through a period of severe sectarian violence; his candid departure assessment, which warned London of the risk of civil war, drew international attention. As Ambassador to Saudi Arabia (2007–2010) he led the mission in Riyadh and worked to deepen bilateral security, commercial and cultural ties, and he closed his diplomatic career as Ambassador to Afghanistan (2010–2012) at the height of the NATO-led coalition effort, overseeing the political and transition strategy. He retired from Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service in April 2012.

Since leaving government he has advised on government and international affairs for Control Risks and held non-executive board positions, including at HSBC Bank Middle East. He was Chairman of Swindon Town Football Club from 2012 to 2013 and served as the Prime Minister's Special Envoy for Aviation Security from 2015 to 2016. He continues to hold leadership and patron roles with a number of charitable and academic institutions, among them the Turquoise Mountain Trust, the Saudi-British Society and Kids for Kids. Appointed CMG and subsequently knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 2009 New Year Honours, he received an honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Dundee in 2016.

Lina Khatib is a scholar and analyst of Middle East geopolitics, security and political transitions, whose work bridges academic research and international policy. Born in Beirut, she read Sociology and Anthropology at the American University of Beirut before taking a Master of Arts in Mass Communication and a PhD in Social Sciences at the University of Leicester. She began her working life in broadcast journalism in Lebanon, an experience that continues to inform her interest in political communication and the power of images.

Her academic career began at Royal Holloway, University of London, where she lectured from 2003 to 2009. In 2010 she joined Stanford University's Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, co-founding and directing its Program on Arab Reform and Democracy. She returned to Beirut as Director of the Carnegie Middle East Center from 2013 to 2015, and from 2016 to 2023 led the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House in London, where she remains an Associate Fellow. She has since served as Director of the SOAS Middle East Institute at SOAS University of London as Professor of Practice, and is a Visiting Scholar with the Middle East Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center.

Her research addresses international relations, non-state armed groups, public diplomacy, political communication and the role of the visual in Middle Eastern political movements. She is the author or editor of several books, including Filming the Modern Middle East: Politics in the Cinemas of Hollywood and the Arab World (2006), Lebanese Cinema: Imagining the Civil War and Beyond (2008), Image Politics in the Middle East: The Role of the Visual in Political Struggle (2012), The Hizbullah Phenomenon: Politics and Communication (2014) and Taking to the Streets: The Transformation of Arab Activism (2014). Alongside her policy work she is active in the cultural sector as a visual artist, theatrical producer and founder of musical projects, and co-leads the World Metal Congress.

Nick Clark is an award-winning British broadcast journalist and news anchor who, until recently, was Environment Editor at Al Jazeera English. He began in UK print media before moving into television news, building a career across the BBC, ITV, Carlton TV, London Weekend Television and the Discovery Channel. Presenting and directing news, travel and environmental programming, his work on the LWT documentary series Sea to Source, which traced the length of the River Thames, won a Royal Television Society Award. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

Clark joined Al Jazeera English as a founding anchor and correspondent, presenting bulletins from the network's Doha and London hubs and covering major breaking news, political developments and conflicts worldwide, including reporting from Afghanistan. Over time his work increasingly focused on science and the environment, and in 2014 he was named a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he studied ocean science and the effects of climate change on ecosystems.

As Al Jazeera's Environment Editor he led the network's climate and ecological coverage, reporting from the field on European wildfires, the retreat of tropical glaciers in the Andes, illegal logging in the Amazon and desertification in Saudi Arabia. He presented and produced field documentaries including special reports from the Weddell Sea in Antarctica and Melting of the Far North, a four-part series on Greenland, and hosted the digital environment strand Plan It Green while contributing to the channel's global documentary series Planet SOS. He stepped down from the role in 2026.

Emily Harris is a parliamentary researcher and speechwriter who has spent more than six years working in the House of Commons. She began in March 2020 as Parliamentary Researcher to Stephen Metcalfe MP, conducting policy research, preparing briefings and handling constituent and campaign correspondence. In November 2021 she joined the office of the Rt Hon Sir James Cleverly MP as Parliamentary Assistant, supporting constituency casework and liaising with national and local government departments and external agencies to progress cases on behalf of constituents.

She was promoted to Senior Caseworker in September 2022, managing complex casework from Westminster and advising constituents on navigating government services, policy and legislation. Since February 2025 she has served as Senior Researcher and Speechwriter to Sir James, supporting him in his role as Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government — researching policy, drafting speeches and preparing material for the despatch box, media appearances and public engagements.

Charlotte Leslie is the Director of the Conservative Middle East Council (CMEC) and a former Member of Parliament with a long-standing focus on Britain's relationships in the Middle East and North Africa. Born in Liverpool in 1978 and raised in Bristol, she was educated at Badminton School and Millfield before reading Classics at Balliol College, Oxford. A competitive swimmer in her youth, she worked in television production and as a Classics tutor and school governor before moving into policy, joining the think tank Policy Exchange in 2005, where she co-authored the research that developed the Pupil Premium, a policy subsequently adopted by government in 2010.

She was elected Conservative MP for Bristol North West in May 2010 and served until 2017, sitting on the Education Select Committee from 2010 to 2013 and the Health Select Committee from 2013 to 2017. Her work in the aftermath of the Mid Staffordshire NHS scandal, where she pressed persistently for accountability in health service leadership, earned her the Spectator's Backbencher of the Year award in 2013. In Parliament she also chaired the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Saudi Arabia and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Boxing, championed the creation of a Royal College of Teaching, and campaigned successfully for the abolition of the beer duty escalator.

Since 2017 she has led CMEC, the Conservative Party's foremost forum for engagement with the Middle East and North Africa, where she oversees the Council's delegations, research and parliamentary programme and writes and speaks regularly on regional politics and Britain's role in the Gulf. Previously CMEC's vice chair while in Parliament, she was appointed a “Grain From Ukraine” Goodwill Ambassador by President Zelensky in 2023.

Raymond Scott Robertson is a Scottish Conservative politician, former Member of Parliament and former Scottish Office minister with more than three decades of experience in Scottish, UK and European political affairs. Born in Hamilton, Scotland, on 11 December 1959, Robertson studied at the University of Glasgow, graduating with an MA with Honours in Modern History and Politics. Before entering Parliament, he worked as a teacher of History and Modern Studies, teaching at Dumbarton Academy and Smithycroft Secondary School in Glasgow.

Robertson entered electoral politics with the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party and first contested the Clydesdale constituency at the 1987 general election. In 1992, he was elected Member of Parliament for Aberdeen South, defeating Labour MP Frank Doran in what was regarded as a significant Conservative victory. He represented the constituency until the 1997 general election. In July 1995, Robertson was appointed a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Scottish Office, serving as Minister for Education, Housing, Fisheries and Sport.

His education responsibilities came at an important period of reform in Scotland, including the development of the Higher Still system and the establishment of the Scottish Qualifications Authority. Parliamentary records from the period identify Robertson as the minister responsible for announcing the Education (Scotland) Bill, which included provisions for the creation of the SQA and reforms to post-16 education. As Education Minister, Robertson publicly emphasised education as a lifelong process and spoke of increasing choice and opportunity while raising standards. His portfolio was unusually broad, reflecting the responsibilities of the Scottish Office before the establishment of the devolved Scottish Parliament in 1999.

After leaving elected politics, Robertson moved into public affairs and strategic communications. He became a founding director and partner of Halogen Communications, an Edinburgh-based public relations and political communications consultancy with an international presence in Washington, DC. According to the firm, he has been involved in Scottish, Westminster and European political affairs for more than 30 years and has extensive experience in political relations, public affairs and strategic communications. Robertson therefore brings together experience across education, government, parliamentary politics, public policy and strategic communications. His career spans the period immediately preceding Scottish devolution, the transition to the modern Scottish political system and his subsequent work advising organisations on political and public affairs.