Sir William Ehrman KCMG

Sir William Ehrman KCMG

Sir William Ehrman was appointed as Her Majesty's Ambassador to the People's Republic of China in January 2006.

Sir William joined the British Diplomatic Service in 1973 after graduating from Cambridge University with a first class Honours degree in Chinese.  After language study in Hong Kong, he was posted to Beijing from 1976 to 1978. Sir William subsequently served in the UK Mission to United Nations before returning to Beijing in 1983 where he served as a member of the negotiating team on the future of Hong Kong. Sir William was later appointed Political Adviser to the Governor of Hong Kong from 1989 to 1993.

Sir William has also served as the Head of the Near East and North Africa Department, as the UK Member of the Bosnia Contact Group and as Principal Private Secretary to three British Foreign Secretaries (Douglas Hurd, Malcolm Rifkind and Robin Cook).  He was seconded to Unilever in Shanghai in 1997-1998 before being appointed Ambassador to Luxembourg from 1998 to 2000.  Since then he served as Director of International Security and, subsequently, Director General for Defence and Intelligence in the Foreign Office between 2000 and 2004. Prior to his appointment as Ambassador to China, Sir William served as the Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee from 2004 to 2005.

Sir William was awarded a knighthood (Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George) in January 2007.

Sir William Ehrman was born in 1950.  He is married to Penelope and has three daughters and one son.