Lord Patten of Barnes was Chairman of the BBC Trust, Chancellor of Oxford University and Co-Chair of the UK-India Round Table. He is the author of a number of bestselling books on international politics. One of the most distinguished politicians of recent times, as Chris Patten he was a Member of Parliament from 1979 to 1992. He held ministerial positions in the Northern Ireland Office and Department of Education, and became Minister for Overseas Development in 1986. He became Secretary of State for the Environment in 1989 and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Chairman of the Conservative Party in 1990. He was made a Privy Counsellor in 1989 and a Companion of Honour in 1998.

Perhaps the role which brought him to greatest prominence was that of Governor of Hong Kong, a position he held between 1992 and 1997, and in which he saw the return of Hong Kong to China. After that time, he served as Chairman of the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland set up under the Good Friday Peace Agreement, which reported in 1999. In September of that year he became European Commissioner for External Relations, a post he held until November 2004. On leaving office in Brussels he was made a Life Peer and took his seat in the House of Lords in January 2005.

He was Chancellor of Newcastle University from 1998 – 2008, and was elected Chancellor of Oxford University in 2003.