Sir James Brian Unwin (born 21 September 1935) is a former British civil servant and an author. He was chairman of the board of

HM Customs and Excise HM Customs and Excise (properly known as Her Majesty's Customs and Excise at the time of its dissolution) was a department of the British Government formed in 1909 by the merger of HM Customs and HM Excise; its primary responsibility was t ...

and president of the European Investment Bank. He is also an author of historical non-fiction.

Education and career

James Brian Unwin studied at

New College, Oxford New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at ...

and

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

. He joined the British Civil Service in 1960, initially working for the

Commonwealth Relations Office The Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations was a British Cabinet minister responsible for dealing with the United Kingdom's relations with members of the Commonwealth of Nations (its former colonies). The minister's department was the Com ...

. From 1968 he was at

HM Treasury His Majesty's Treasury (HM Treasury), occasionally referred to as the Exchequer, or more informally the Treasury, is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for developing and executing the government's public finance policy and ec ...

, seconded from 1981 to 1987 to the Cabinet Office. There he eventually held the post of Deputy Secretary. He was chairman of the board of

(1987–1993) and became president of the European Investment Bank in 1993, a position which he held until his retirement in 1999. He has served as president of the

European Centre for Nature Conservation The European Centre for Nature Conservation (ECNC) was a Dutch non-profit foundation which was active in the field of European nature and biodiversity policy between 1993 and 2017. It was set up as a network of university departments, expert centre ...

and as a member of the board of directors of

English National Opera English National Opera (ENO) is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with The Royal Opera. ENO's productions are sung in Englis ...

Authorship

Unwin has published two works of historical non-fiction, both dealing with the Napoleonic era: ''Terrible Exile: The Last Days of Napoleon on St Helena'' (2010), which was shortlisted for the Fondation Napoléon History Prize, and ''A Tale in Two Cities: Fanny Burney and Adèle, Comtesse de Boigne'' (2014). In 2016, Unwin published a memoir of his time in the civil service titled '''With respect, minister'''.

Honours

On 13 June 1986, Unwin was appointed

Commander of the Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as on ...

(CB). On 5 June 1990, he was promoted to

Knight Commander Commander ( it, Commendatore; french: Commandeur; german: Komtur; es, Comendador; pt, Comendador), or Knight Commander, is a title of honor prevalent in chivalric orders and fraternal orders. The title of Commander occurred in the medieval mi ...

of the same Order (KCB) with the

1990 Birthday Honours The Birthday Honours 1990 for the Commonwealth realms were announced on 15 June 1990, to celebrate the Queen's Birthday of 1990. The recipients of honours are displayed here as they were styled before their new honour, and arranged firstly by the ...

References

External links

Brian Unwin speaking during the launch of the book 'The EU Fiscal Crisis: Forcing Eurozone Political Union in 2011?' by Graham Bishop
{{DEFAULTSORT:Unwin, Brian Living people British civil servants British non-fiction writers Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath 1935 births British male writers Presidents of the European Investment Bank British officials of the European Union Male non-fiction writers Civil servants in the Commonwealth Relations Office