Tom is the Principal of Hertford College, Oxford University.
Tom served as the foreign policy advisor to Prime Ministers Blair, Brown and Cameron, before becoming British Ambassador to Lebanon (2011-15) and a Visiting Professor at NYU (2015-20). He is the author of the bestselling Naked Diplomacy: Power & Statecraft in the Digital Age (2016) and Ten Survival Skills for a World in Flux (Harper Collins, February 2022). Forthcoming publications include his first novel, The Ambassador (Canelo, August 2022). He led reviews of the modernisation of the FCO (2016); future of the UN (2017) and the future of learning (2019). He is a former chair of the international board of the UK's Creative Industries Federation, adviser to businesses, academies and NGOs, and a member of the Global Tech Panel. He writes for the NYT, Prospect, Foreign Policy, The National and others, is a regular interviewee on BBC, Sky, CNN and has been profiled by the BBC, Arab News and more. His Foundation for Opportunity supports good people doing good things in public life.