Alastair Newton

Alastair first became associated with ADC in early 2008 as an advisor to the Supervisory Board, before joining the Board a few months later. He served as Vice Chairman from 2009 to 2012 and was elected Chairman in January 2013.

Alastair is currently Senior Political Analyst/Managing Director at Nomura International, a post he has held since September 2008 (prior to which he worked for Lehman Brothers International for just over three years in the same capacity). As such, he is responsible for identifying, tracking and analyzing political events worldwide which are likely to impact on financial markets. In addition to his signature periodical Issues Which Keep Me Awake At Night on political and geopolitical risk, he is the co-author of major studies on China, on India, on Indonesia, on North Korea and on Iran/Israel, as well as numerous shorter papers. He is also a frequent commentator on current politics on television and radio and a regular speaker at conferences and other events worldwide.

From 1985 to 2005 he was a career diplomat with the British diplomatic service. He served in sub-Saharan Africa (twice), Paris (at the OECD) and the United States. In London, he worked in intelligence co-ordination (including during the 1990/91 Gulf War), policy planning and economic relations, as well as running the Prime Minister's G7/8 team from 1998 to 2000. He was on secondment from the Diplomatic Service to Lehman Brothers from 2000 to 2002.

Among Alastair’s other activities, he is immediate past-president of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies; and a member of the Chatham House Council and its Executive Committee, and the Practitioners’ Advisory Board of the journal Global Policy.

Presently based in London, he also has a home in Livingstone, Zambia where he is co-founder and director of Alavan Business Advisory.