John Chipman

International Institute for Strategic Studies

Director General and Chief Executive

The chief executive and director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), John Chipman has come to know the international relations territory well. A graduate of Harvard, LSE and Oxford, Chipman has spent almost his entire career at the IISS. He began as a research associate after graduating in the early 1980s, becoming director of studies in 1990. He soon held a senior position at the think tank founded by Michael Howard and Denis Healey in the early-1970s. Chipman gained a CBE in 1999 and became the institute’s chief executive in 1993. Chipman is married with two sons and has been a board director for Gulf-based oil firms over the past decade.