Edward Mortimer CMG is chair of the 21st Century Trust, having first become involved in its programmes in the early 1990s. From 1998 to 2006, he was chief speechwriter (and later also director of communications) to the Secretary-General at the United Nations. He has spent much of his career as a journalist, first with The Times of London, where he developed an expertise in Middle East affairs, and later with the Financial Times, where from 1987 to 1998 he was the main commentator and columnist on foreign affairs. His books include Faith and Power: the Politics of Islam (1982), and The World That FDR Built (1989). In the UK’s 2010 New Year Honours, he was named a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG).