Former US Ambassador to the UK

Raymond Seitz was appointed Vice Chairman at Lehman Brothers in May 1996, having joined the firm a year previously. He resigned as American Ambassador to the Court of St James' in May 1994 after three years at the London post. Simultaneously, he resigned from the US Foreign Service following a career of twenty-eight years. Ambassador Seitz is currently a non-executive director on the boards of Marconi, the Chubb Corporation, Cable & Wireless, British Airways, Rio Tinto and PCCW. He is also chairman of Authoriszor Inc.

Ambassador Seitz graduated from Yale University with a degree in history in 1963. After two years spent teaching in Dallas, Texas, he joined the Foreign Service in 1966. His first post was in Montreal, Canada as Consular Officer; in 1968 he was assigned to Nairobi, Kenya as Political Officer, serving concurrently as Vice-Consul in the Seychelles Islands. After two years as Principal Officer in Bukavu, Zaire, Ambassador Seitz returned to the State Department in 1972 and was appointed Director of the Secretariat Staff under Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

He subsequently served as Special Assistant to the Director General of the Foreign Service. In 1975 he was assigned for the first time to the U.S Embassy in London as First Secretary, and in 1978, he received the Director General's Award for Reporting. Returning to Washington in 1979 as Deputy Executive Secretary to the Department of State, Ambassador Seitz served in the office of Secretaries Vance, Muskie and Haig. In October 1981 he became Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs.

In July 1982, Secretary Schultz appointed Ambassador Seitz Executive Assistant to the Secretary of State. Three years later he returned to the London Embassy as Minister. President Bush nominated Ambassador Seitz as Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Canada in June 1989 where he served until his nomination by the President as Ambassador. He was sworn in by Secretary of State James Baker and presented his credentials to the Queen in June 1991.

Ambassador Seitz was awarded the 1996 Benjamin Franklin Medal by the Royal Society of Arts, and in 1999 received the Churchill Medal of Honour from the English-Speaking Union. He has written numerous book reviews for the Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Sunday Telegraph, and The Literary Review and broadcast several series of essays for the BBC. In 1998 Weidenfeld & Nicholson published his first book Over Here.