Anthony Harris
Anthony’s career with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which focused largely on the Arab World, culminated in his appointment as British Ambassador to the UAE in 1994. Other postings included Lebanon, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, the UN in Geneva, and Egypt. From 1990 to 1994 he was responsible for the British Government’s relations with the foreign press worldwide, and the management of the BBC Overseas Service. In the 1980s he was seconded to the Defence Export Services Organisation in the Ministry of Defence, where he was responsible for bilateral defence relations with the GCC States, and helped to negotiate the Al-Yamamah Air Defence contract with the Saudi Arabian Government. He was Chargé D’Affaires in the British Embassy in Cairo during the First Gulf War in 1990. Before moving to Dubai in 2000, he was for two years a Director of Corporate Finance with Robert Fleming in the City of London.
He is now Senior Executive Officer of Robert Fleming Insurance Brokers (RFIB) Middle East in the Dubai International Financial Centre and General Manager, RFIB Saudi Arabia, in Riyadh, which involves a great deal of commuting between Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and visits to other Gulf States. In the past twelve years in Dubai he has acted as consultant to a wide range of international companies, mainly in the financial services field, but also in energy, power generation, education, medical equipment, railways, software development, corporate communications and commercial intelligence. He also writes and occasionally broadcasts on regional political and economic affairs.
Anthony has an MA in ancient languages, literature, ancient history and philosophy from Exeter College, Oxford. He speaks Arabic and French. He was Commonwealth shooting champion in 1964 (HM The Queen’s Prize).