Revolving Doors: Cab Sec Sedwill Lands Job With Top Defence Firm

The Establishment is a term used to define the British elite that selects its own members and entrenches elite structures in specific institutions. It is a relatively small class or group of people who exercise that control as The Establishment. The term “revolving door” refers to the movement of high-level employees from public-sector jobs to private-sector jobs and vice versa. And if ever there was an individual who represented this small class of people it would be the (relatively unknown to the general public) former cabinet secretary to Boris Johnson’s government – Mark Sedwill.

Sedwill was, until last September, the UK’s most senior civil servant. He left the role after being thrown under yet another bus after Johnson’s failings during the pandemic. Lord Kerslake, a former head of the civil service, said Sedwill’s departure followed unfair hostile briefings that attempted to blame civil servants for mistakes over coronavirus.

However, Sedwill is now to become a non-executive director at the UK’s biggest defence group – BAE Systems.

Sedwill was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 2008 Birthday Honours, a Knight Commander in the 2018 New Year Honours and made a Lord in September 2020. He was the national security adviser until he left the government in September 2020 – will start work at BAE Systems in November.

He is currently a senior adviser and supervisory board member at financial firm Rothschild & Co, and the senior independent director and senior deputy chair of insurer Lloyd’s of London.

Sedwill’s other post-government roles include serving as chairman of the Atlantic Future Forum summit and as an adviser to Singapore-based investment company Temasek Holdings. He is also president of the Special Forces Club and a member of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution council.

Sedwill’s appointment to the board of BAE Systems will not require scrutiny by the government’s anti-corruption watchdog the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments because it will be taken up more than two years after Sedwill left the civil service.

BAE Systems chair Sir Roger Carr said Sedwill would bring “well-informed geopolitical and economic perspectives” to the business, as well as experience leading large and complex organisations.

“His appointment will be a great addition to the board and further strengthens its credentials given the company’s role in supporting global security” – Carr said.

Sedwill said he was “delighted” to have been invited to take up his latest role. “BAE Systems is the UK’s leading defence company and is thus central to this country’s national security and economic agenda,” he said.

 

 

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