Biography: Sir Hilary Synnott KCMG

Biography: Sir Hilary Synnott KCMG Regional Co-ordinator, CPA South Hilary Synnott was appointed as the Coalition Provisional Authority’s Regional Coordinator for South Iraq at the end of July 2003. He works directly to the CPA Administrator, Ambassador Paul Bremer, and has responsibility for the four Southern Provinces, including the large city of Basra. His previous appointment was as British High Commissioner in Islamabad, where he served for three years until 2003. He was Director for South and South-East Asian Affairs at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London from 1996 to 1998. Before that he was Deputy High Commissioner in New Delhi, from 1993 to 1996. During a year’s attachment as Visiting Fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in 1999, Hilary Synnott wrote “The Causes and Consequences of South Asia’s Nuclear Tests”, published as an Adelphi Paper by Oxford University Press. Previous diplomatic appointments include Deputy Head of Mission in Amman, Jordan, Head of Western European Department at the FCO at the time of the unification of Germany, Head of the FCO’s Security Co-ordination Department, and postings in Paris and Bonn. Before joining Her Majesty’s Diplomatic Service, Hilary Synnott served in the Royal Navy for 11 years as a submariner. He has a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Cambridge University and, when in the Navy, was a Chartered Engineer and Member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers. Hilary Synnott was awarded the KCMG in the Afghanistan List in October 2002. He is married and lives in West Sussex, England.