Richard Peter Ralph CMG CVO (born 27 April 1946) is an English former diplomat who was ambassador to Peru and then chairman of a mining company that operates in Peru.
Ralph was educated at The King's School, Canterbury, and Edinburgh University. He joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in 1969 and served at Vientiane, Lisbon, Harare and Washington, D.C., as well as at the FCO. He was ambassador to Latvia 1993–95, governor of the Falkland Islands (and commissioner for South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands) 1996–99, ambassador to Romania and concurrently to Moldova 1999–2002, and ambassador to Peru 2003–06.
While Ralph was ambassador to Romania, the government sold its national steel firm, Sidex, to a company owned by Lakshmi Mittal, a major donor to the British Labour party which was then in power under Tony Blair as prime minister. Ralph was said to have a mistress who was employed by a legal firm which worked on the steel deal, [1] and he had previously worked alongside Jonathan Powell, who later became Blair's chief of staff, at the British Embassy in Washington. However, Ralph was defended by the foreign secretary, Jack Straw. [2]
Ralph left the diplomatic service in 2006 and became executive chairman of Monterrico Metals plc, a publicly listed company with a copper mine at Rio Blacos in Peru. [3] In 2008 he was fined for insider trading associated with Monterrico Metals. [4]
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: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), Monterrico Metals plc, 14 August 2006BAE Systems plc (BAE) is a British multinational arms, security, and aerospace company based in London, England. It is the largest defence contractor in Europe, and ranked the seventh-largest in the world based on applicable 2021 revenues. As of 2017, it is the biggest manufacturer in Britain. Its largest operations are in the United Kingdom and United States, where its BAE Systems Inc. subsidiary is one of the six largest suppliers to the US Department of Defense. Other major markets include Australia, Canada, Japan, India, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, Oman and Sweden, where Saudi Arabia is regularly among its top three sources of revenue. The company was formed on 30 November 1999 by the £7.7 billion purchase of and merger with Marconi Electronic Systems (MES), the defence electronics and naval shipbuilding subsidiary of the General Electric Company plc (GEC), by British Aerospace, an aircraft, munitions and naval systems manufacturer.
Lakshmi Niwas Mittal is an Indian steel magnate, based in the United Kingdom. He is the Executive Chairman of ArcelorMittal, the world's second largest steelmaking company, as well as chairman of stainless steel manufacturer Aperam. Mittal owns 38% of ArcelorMittal and holds a 3% stake in EFL Championship side Queens Park Rangers.
Al Yamamah is the name of a series of record arms sales by the United Kingdom to Saudi Arabia, paid for by the delivery of up to 600,000 barrels (95,000 m3) of crude oil per day to the British government. The prime contractor has been BAE Systems and its predecessor British Aerospace. The first sales occurred in September 1985 and the most recent contract for 72 Eurofighter Typhoon multirole fighters was signed in August 2006.
Sir David Geoffrey Manning, is a former British diplomat, who was the British Ambassador to the United States from 2003 to 2007. He authored the so-called "Manning Memo", that summarized the details of a meeting between American president George W. Bush and British prime minister Tony Blair during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Until 2019, he was appointed to the Household of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
Craig John Murray is a Scottish author, human rights campaigner, journalist, and former diplomat for the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Sir Matthew John Rycroft is a British civil servant and diplomat serving as Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office since 2020, appointed following the resignation of Sir Philip Rutnam. Rycroft previously served as Permanent Secretary at the Department for International Development (DFID) from 2018 to 2020 and as the Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York from 2015 to 2018.
Michael Hastings Jay, Baron Jay of Ewelme, is a British politician and former diplomat. He sits as a Crossbench member of the House of Lords, and previously served as Ambassador to France and Permanent Under Secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Sir Rodney Malcolm Aldridge is the founder and former executive chairman of Capita, a British company specialising in business process outsourcing.
Robin William Renwick, Baron Renwick of Clifton, is a former diplomat and a former member of the House of Lords. He was appointed by Prime Minister Blair but moved to the crossbenches in 2007. He retired from the House in 2018.
Kazakhstan – United Kingdom relations were formally established on 19 January 1992. The UK opened an embassy in Kazakhstan in October 1992 and Kazakhstan opened an embassy in the UK in February 1996. Kazakhstan's relations with the West have greatly improved in the last few years as the Government has closely cooperated in the U.S.-led War on Terror.
Richard Oliver Miles CMG was a British Ambassador and former chairman of the international business development company MEC International.
Sir Geoffrey Doyne Adams served as the British Ambassador to Egypt from 2018 to 2021, as a member of the British Diplomatic Service. He was Ambassador to the Netherlands from 2013 to 2017.
Farhad Moshiri is a British-Iranian businessman based in Monaco. He is the chairman and a shareholder of USM, a diversified Russian holding company with significant interests across the metals and mining, telecoms, technology and internet sectors. Moshiri is also the majority owner of Premier League football club Everton.
Sir Andrew Thomas Cahn, KCMG is a non-executive director of Nomura, chair of the board of governors of Birkbeck, University of London, and a former senior civil servant.
Christopher Norman Russell Prentice is a retired British diplomat. His last diplomatic post was Ambassador to Italy. He is currently Chairman of the Governors of the British Institute of Florence.
Dame Denise Mary Holt, DCMG was British Ambassador to Mexico (2002–05) and Spain and Andorra (2007–09). She is currently the Chair of Council at the University of Sussex.
Sir William Charters Patey, KCMG is a British retired diplomat. He was British Ambassador to Afghanistan from 2010 to 2012, and previously served as Ambassador to Sudan, to Iraq and to Saudi Arabia.
Sir Roderic Michael John Lyne is a British former diplomat who served as British Ambassador to the Russian Federation from 2000 to 2004.
Robert Nigel Paul Macaire CMG is a British diplomat who served as UK's Ambassador to Iran from 2018 to 2021.