David Gore-Booth is special adviser to the chairman of HSBC Holding plc. in London, one of the largest banking and service organizations in the world. Sir David is a career diplomat, and served as British high commissioner to India from 1996 to 1998, and British ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1993 to 1996. From 1987 to 1992, he was posted to Foreign and Commonwealth Service as assistant under secretary of state for the Middle East and as head of the policy planning staff. From 1983 to 1987, Sir David was the counselor and head of chancery at the United Kingdom Mission to the United Nations, New York. He was the commercial counselor to Jeddah from 1980 to 1982; deputy head of financial relations for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1978 to 1980; and, from 1974 to 1978, served as first secretary to the United Kingdom’s permanent representation to the European Communities in Brussels. Sir David has also held diplomatic posts in Tripoli, Zambia, and Baghdad. Educated at Eton College, Sir David received an M.A. in history and French from Christ Church College, Oxford University, as well as a diploma in advanced Arabic from the Middle East Center for Arab Studies, Lebanon. Sir David was the co-chair of Salzburg Seminar Session 388, Sustaining Democracy in the Modern Word, 2001 and was a participant at Salzburg Seminar Special Session, The Search for a New World Order: Great Power Foreign Policy Choices in the Post Cold War Era, 1996. Sir David is accompanied by his wife, Mary Gore-Booth.