Kevin Tebbit

British civil servant

Kevin Tebbit (left) in the Pentagon, December, 2001

Sir Kevin Reginald Tebbit KCB CMG (born 18 October 1946)[1] is a former British civil servant.

Career

He was educated at the Cambridgeshire High School for Boys and was a senior history scholar at St John's College, Cambridge.[1][2] Tebbit joined the Ministry of Defence in 1969 and in 1972 became assistant private secretary to the Secretary of State for Defence.[2] At the Ministry of Defence Tebbit was concerned with defence plans and policy for Britain's nuclear forces. Tebbit served as the first secretary to the United Kingdom's delegation to NATO, in Brussels between 1979 and 1982.[2] A second posting abroad saw Tebbit join the Foreign Office's East European and Soviet Department, and serve as the head of chancery at the British Embassy in Turkey.[2] From 1987 to 1988 Tebbit was the director of cabinet to the then Secretary General of NATO, Lord Carrington and served as the politico-military counsellor at the British Embassy, Washington from 1988 to 1991.[2]

Upon his return to the United Kingdom in 1992 Tebbit served in a variety of roles at the Foreign Office, including as the head of the economic relations department, director of resources and the chief inspector responsible for finance and organisational planning.[2]

From January to July 1998, Tebbit was Director of the Government Communications Headquarters, the British intelligence agency specialising in signals intelligence and cyber security.[2]

Following this he became the Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Defence before retiring in November 2005 to take up posts in industry and academia.[3]

He is a governor of the conference-organising Ditchley Foundation, based at Chipping Norton.[4] He is also Visiting Professor at The Policy Institute at King's College London.[5] He was a non-executive director of private intelligence company the Smiths Group from 2006 to 2018.[6]

Tebbit gave evidence to The Iraq Inquiry on both 3 December 2009[7] and 3 February 2010.[8]

Tebbit is a supporter of West Ham United, his hobbies include music and archeology.[2] He is married with two children.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b "TEBBIT, Sir Kevin Reginald (1946 - )", Debrett's People of Today, 2004
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Press Association (20 August 2003). "Profile: Sir Kevin Tebbit". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  3. ^ Smith's Group
  4. ^ "The Ditchley Foundation: The Governors". Archived from the original on 26 September 2006.
  5. ^ "King's College London - Tebbit, Sir Kevin". www.kcl.ac.uk. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
  6. ^ "Sir Kevin Tebbet to Retire from Smiths Group Board of Directors". Smiths Group. 26 July 2018. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
  7. ^ "The US 'assumed' UK participation in Iraq, inquiry told". BBC News. BBC. 3 December 2009. Retrieved 28 January 2010.
  8. ^ "Gordon Brown denies 'guillotining' UK defence budget". BBC News. BBC. 3 February 2010. Retrieved 10 February 2010.

External links

  • Video: Tebbit's evidence to the Iraq Inquiry in 2009
Government offices
Preceded by Permanent Secretary of the
Ministry of Defence
1998–2005 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Director of GCHQ
January – July 1998 		Succeeded by
Sir Francis Richards