John Olav Kerr, Baron Kerr of Kinlochard (born 22 February 1942), is a British former diplomat and civil servant, and is a crossbench member of the House of Lords. He was a member of the European Convention that first drafted what became Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which came into force in December 2009. He later served for a period as Deputy Chairman of Scottish Power. Background and education Born in Grantown-on-Spey, he was educated at Glasgow Academy and at Pembroke College, Oxford (BA modern history 1963). He has Honorary degrees from the Universities of St Andrews, Aston and Glasgow. He is a Fellow of Imperial College London and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and an Honorary Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford. Diplomatic career He served in the British Diplomatic Service from 1966 until 2002. This included postings at the British Embassy in Moscow, and at the High Commission in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. He was Private secretary to the Permanent Under Secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1974 until 1979, and was on secondment to HM Treasury from 1979 until 1984, during which time he was Principal Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1981 until 1984. He was Head of Chancery at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., from 1984 until 1987, then Assistant Under Secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1987 until 1990. He was Ambassador and UK Permanent Representative to the European Communities/European Union in Brussels from 1990 until 1995, and Ambassador to the United States in Washington from 1995 to 1997. Returning to London in 1997, he was Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office and Head of the Diplomatic Service until 2002. After leaving UK Government service he was Secretary General of the European Convention in 2002/3. He was appointed to the Order of St Michael and St George as a Companion in the 1987 Birthday Honours, was promoted to be a Knight Commander in the 1991 New Year Honours, and to be a Knight Grand Cross in the 2001 Birthday Honours. Three years later, his life peerage was announced on 1 May and was raised to the peerage as Baron Kerr of Kinlochard, of Kinlochard in Perthshire. In the House of Lords he has served on the EU Select Committee and three of its Sub-Committees, and currently is a member of its Economic Select Committee. He is a