Former MI6 chief Sir John Sawers joins BP board

Sir John Sawers, former head of Britain's secret intelligence service, has joined BP as a non-executive director, making his first high-profile move into the private sector since leaving MI6.

Announcing the move on Thursday, BP pointed to Sir John's "long experience in government", which included periods as ambassador to the UN, Britain's special representative in Iraq following the 2003 US-led invasion and as Tony Blair's foreign policy adviser.

Sir John, who left the secret service's top job last November after a five-year tenure, will not be the first former intelligence official to work for the UK-based energy group, but he is the most well known. BP will benefit from his extensive experience of the Middle East's hotspots while a career diplomat, and his influential roles in formulating foreign policy.

Britain's intelligence chiefs have made lucrative careers for themselves in business and finance after their retirement from Whitehall.

Sir John Scarlett, Sir John's predecessor, is an adviser to the international risk consultancy the Chertoff Group, and a senior adviser to Morgan Stanley.

Sir Richard Dearlove, who served as MI6 chief from 1999 to 2004, sits on the advisory board of AIG, and is chairman of insurance company Ascot Underwriting.

As well as his BP role, for which he will receive a £90,000 non-executive salary, Sir John is chairman and partner of Macro Advisory Partners, a visiting professor at King's College London and a governor of The Ditchley Foundation.

Sir John's appointment at MI6 in November 2009 ushered in a period of quiet change for the ultra-secretive organisation.

As an outsider - for most of his career, he served as a diplomat for the Foreign Office - his move back to head the intelligence service was also met with criticism from some quarters, and some suspicion within the organisation itself.

In the wake of damaging publicity over the intelligence case for the Iraq war, however, Sir John rebuilt the service's reputation within Whitehall.

At the spy group's headquarters, the distinctive Thameside post-modernist building known within the service as 'Babylon', he encouraged greater openness, introducing open-plan office spaces.

Elsewhere in government, he earned a reputation for his polish and professionalism, and helped to build links between MI6 and the UK's other two intelligence agencies, GCHQ and the Security Service, known as MI5.

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