Baroness Catherine Ashton

"Catherine is a superb speaker, with loads of fascinating anecdotes! Thoroughly enjoyed it."

Baroness Catherine Ashton is a Labour politician and the former High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. She was also the first Vice President of The European Commission from 2009 to 2014. A hugely influential figure, Baroness Ashton was Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Council in Gordon Brown’s first cabinet in 2007. It was during this period that she played a pivotal role in passing the Treaty of Lisbon, an international agreement which forms the constitutional basis of The European Union, through UK parliament. This led to her being named as the British European Commissioner and the Commissioner for Trade for the European Commission in 2008.

During this time, she led an ambitious and far-reaching trade agreement with South Korea, and solved a number of high-profile trade disputes with major trading partners. Ashton has also championed trade as a means of promoting development around the world, putting the EU’s economic relationship with African, Caribbean and Pacific countries on a firmer footing. In late 2009, she became the very first High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, a role created as a result of the Lisbon Treaty. Despite questions being raised in regards to her experience at the time of the appointment, she subsequently went on to win praise for the work she did as a negotiator in some of the world’s most difficult international situations.

These negotiation skills were particularly evident in the role she played in bringing together Serbia and Kosovo to a sign an agreement to normalise ties in 2013 and with Iran later the same year which led to the Geneva interim agreement on Iranian Nuclear Program. In a time whereby Britain’s involvement in the EU is at its peak interest, Baroness Catherine Ashton makes for a fantastic after dinner speaker who will put her views on Brexit forward and offer her insight on what the future may hold. Her wide ranging talks focus on what led to Brexit, the future of trading between Britain and the EU, the process surrounding Article 50, Britain’s relationship with America and her own personal career including what it was like to be the first British woman EU commissioner.