Paul Flather
Paul spent his early years in India reporting on Indian affairs and doing his primary research on Indian democracy. His family fled Lahore to Delhi at Partition (1947). His great-great-grandfather, Sir Gangaram, founded hospitals, schools, colleges, and charities in Lahore. He was sent to school in the UK and has remained ever since, seeing himself as a child of the Commonwealth with feet in both countries.
He is an Associate Fellow of the Asian Studies Centre, St Anthony’s College, Oxford. He recently retired as a Fellow of Corpus Christi and Mansfield Colleges (1994-2020), former director of international affairs for the University (1994-1999), and founding Secretary-General of the Europaeum Association of leading European universities (2000-17).
He chairs several charity boards: The Forum for Philosophy (acting president), the Oxford Adam von Trott Memorial Committee (until 2022), and the Vicky Noon Educational Foundation, which has provided more than £3 million to support Pakistani scholars' study at Oxbridge.
After graduating from Balliol College, Oxford, he worked for the BBC, Times Newspapers, and the New Statesman, among other journals, before being elected as a full-time Chair of the London Post-Schools education committee. He worked with dissident groups in the region during the 1980s. He was appointed founding CEO/Secretary-General for the Central European University in Prague, Warsaw, and Budapest, helping to initiate many regional Soros-backed Open Society initiatives. He was recently awarded the Jan Masaryk Silver Medal by Czechia.
He has created many scholarship schemes, including the Soros Hospitality, Jenkins Scholarships, Noon Scholars scheme, Adam von Trott, and Commonwealth Scheme. He has lectured worldwide, chairing sessions and coordinating conferences and summer schools, including high-level sessions for the British Council on how to battle corruption. He has published widely and advised the EU on relations with India in the lead-up to the 1997 50th anniversary of its independence.
He joined the Commonwealth Round Table Moot in 2004 and has chaired its Web Advisory Group.