a full-time politician, chairing London's Post-Schools education committee. He was then appointed founding CEO/Secretary-General for the Central European University in Prague, Warsaw and Budapest, and supporting many Soror-backed Open Society initiatives across the former central and eastern Europe. He had worked with dissident groups in the region during the 1980s. In the early 1990s, Flather worked for four years for the Open Society Foundation setting up a variety of international Soros programmes and was founding Secretary-General, member of the Senate, and CEO of the Central European University which was originally set up in Prague, Budapest and Warsaw after the 1989 revolutions. Flather was responsible for 80 staff members and an annual budget of £15 million, for negotiations with governments and the CEU's policy development and central administration. In 1994 Flather was appointed director of international and external relations for Oxford University, running alumni, media, community, governmental, international and publications relations, and a Fellow of Corpus Christi College. Among many achievements, he helped found and run the Oxford Jenkins Scholarships scheme. He was then recruited as new Director of International and External Affairs at Oxford University, a post he for five years until 2000. The directorate includes the responsibility for all international links, overseas scholarships, media relations, alumni relations, relevant University publications, information and communication, events, and community links. In addition, he served as secretary to the university's International Committee, as treasurer of the Europaeum, as Oxford's University representative to COIMBRA Group. He was also an advisor to Oxford Today and editor of Gazette News. In 2000, Flather was appointed as secretary-general of the Europaeum, an association of leading European universities, including Oxford, Leiden, Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, Charles University, Prague, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Complutense University of Madrid, the University of Helsinki, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and the Institute of Political Studies, Catholic University of Lisbon as associate member. In 2017, the Europaeum welcomed the University of St Andrews and the University of Luxembourg as its newest members. Flather presided over the growth of the Europaeum, from the original three members when he joined the association, to a total of 13 in 2017. In his time as secretary-general, he coordinated collaborative academic research, study, and teaching programmes for and between member universities. He was also editor of Europaeum Review, director of many research programmes, coordinator for joint study and degree initiatives,