businesswoman and former civil servant
Claire Smith worked for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, now FCOD, for 27 years in London, China, Germany, and Pakistan. For the last 12 years, she has run her own business, been a non-executive director of an international engineering consultancy, chair of governors at a London primary school, visiting professor, lecturer and speaker at a number of universities, a member of a UK government appeals panel and chair of an educational trust. She speaks German, Mandarin and French, enjoys old-fashioned detective novels and travel.