People

Meet the CMEC team

Honorary President - The Rt Hon. the Lord Soames of Fletching

Lord Soames has very extensive experience of the Middle East. He was elected as the President of the Conservative Middle East Council in 2007 and previously served as Chairman from 1997 to 2003.

He began his career in the Army, where he served with the 11th Hussars. Upon leaving the Army, he worked as Equerry to the Prince of Wales, as a stockbroker, as personal assistant to Sir James Goldsmith and the then Senator Mark Hatfield. He left his service in 1978 and went on to become a Director at Lloyds Brokers and then Assistant Director at the Sedgwick Group.

Lord Soames served as an MP without interruption between 1983 and 2019, representing first Crawley, and then Mid Sussex. His Parliamentary career saw him serve as Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, as Minister of State for the Armed Forces and Shadow Secretary of State for Defence.

Director - Charlotte Leslie

Charlotte Leslie is the Director of CMEC.

Charlotte is a former Member of Parliament, serving as the Conservative MP for Bristol North West from 2010 - 2017.  She sat on Select Committees for education, health, and specialised in the Middle East. She was chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Saudi Arabia, and was awarded the Spectator's "Backbencher of the Year" award for work on health.

Prior to entering politics, Charlotte worked in television production at the BBC. She studied Classics at Balliol College, Oxford. She is a regular contributor to national newspapers, radio and television. In 2023, Ukraine's President Zelensky appointed her as one of seven global "Grain From Ukraine" Goodwill Ambassadors. 

Head of Operations - Marc Morrison

Marc is Head of Operations at CMEC. He holds an MA in Public History, and MSc in Project Management, from Royal Holloway, University of London, and has a special interest in Middle East Affairs, having written about and travelled widely around the region. Marc previously worked as a senior parliamentary advisor.

Advisory Board 
 

  • Marcus Booth - Conservative Party Treasurer
    Marcus Booth is a Partner of a leading US law firm in the EMEA Corporate M&A team. He is a Conservative Party Treasurer, and co-chair of the Business and Entrepreneurs Forum of the Conservative Party. 
     
  • The Rt. Hon. Alistair Burt - Former Minister of State for The Middle East and North Africa 
    Alistair Burt was Minister of State for the Middle East at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, together with the Department for International Development from June 2017 to March 2019. He was previously Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office from May 2010 until October 2013.  In the interim, between May 2015 and July 2016 he was Minister for Health. He is Pro-Chancellor of Lancaster University. 
     
  • Rob Butler OBE - Former MP for Aylesbury
    Rob Butler was the Conservative Member of Parliament for Aylesbury until 2024. He previously worked as a television presenter and journalist for the BBC and Channel 5, before founding a communications firm, and working in public relations. 
     
  • Leon Cook - Founder, Atticus Partners
    Leon Cook is the founder of the award-winning government affairs and communications agency, Atticus Partners. He is an Executive Committee member of the PRCA Public Affairs Board, and a board member of Conservatives Abroad, the Conservative Party's global network of members and supporters living overseas. A politics and history graduate, he has worked extensively across the Middle East and North Africa. He stood for the Conservative Party at the 2024 General Election. 
     
  • Con Coughlin - Author, and Executive Defence and Foreign Affairs Editor of The Daily Telegraph
    Con Coughlin is an experienced journalist who has covered Middle East affairs since the mid- 1980s. He is the defence editor of The Daily Telegraph, and author of several books, the most recent being "Assad - The Triumph of Tyranny". 
     
  • Corina Goetz - Founder of Star-CaT
    Corina Goetz  is CEO of Star-CaT, a Middle Eastern Advisory, Training and Consultation company. For more than 20 years she has worked with leaders from the Gulf, Royal families and business people. Her achievements include helping a company grow from zero clients to a $6 million annual turnover. As a German, and non-Arabic speaker, she knows how hard it can be to understand a culture so different to that of the West. Since founding Star-CaT, she has worked world-wide, educating and assisting businesses in doing better business in the dynamic Gulf region.
     
  • Sir John Jenkins KCMG LVO - Former British Diplomat 
    Sir John is a Senior Fellow at Policy Exchange, for whom he writes on Islamism and extremism. He helps lead the Westphalia Programme at Cambridge University’s Centre for Geopolitics, and is an Associate Fellow of Chatham House. Between 1980 and 2015 he served as a British diplomat in Abu Dhabi, Malaysia and Kuwait. He was appointed Ambassador to Burma, HM Consul-General in Jerusalem, Ambassador to Syria, FCO Director for the MENA, Ambassador to Iraq, Special Representative to the National Transitional Council and subsequently Ambassador to Libya and then to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In 2014 he was asked by then Prime Minister, David Cameron, to lead a Policy Review into the Muslim Brotherhood and Political Islamism. From 2015-2017 he was based in Bahrain as Executive Director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies – Middle East. In 2017 he was also a Senior Fellow at the Yale Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, teaching Middle East Politics. Sir John holds a BA and a PhD from Jesus College, Cambridge. He studied Arabic, Malay and Burmese at SOAS and other institutions in London.
     
  • Lina Khatib - Associate Fellow for the MENA Programme, Chatham House 
    Lina Khatib is Associate Fellow MENA Programme at Chatham House, and an analyst,  writer, and commentator. She is an internationally recognised expert on policy, politics, governance, security, culture, communications, and public diplomacy in relation to the Middle East with a track record of senior leadership at world-leading policy institutions.
     
  • Katherine Mulhern - Founder and CEO ' Restitution'
     Katherine Mulhern is the Founder and CEO of Restitution. Prior to this she served as the Executive Director at the International Senior Lawyers Project (ISLP) . With a background in law and international legal studies, Katherine has held various partner positions at prestigious law firms such as Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP, Proskauer Rose LLP, and Hogan Lovells.
     
  • Jonathan Rose - Barrister
    Jonathan Rose is a barrister at 4-5 Gray's Inn Square. His areas of expertise are business crime, investigations and resolutions, and professional discipline and regulatory. He has significant trial experience of civil fraud, commercial dispute resolution and criminal cases.