Lord Blair of Boughton

Former Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Lord Ian Blair is an experienced and forthright speaker, who can cover topics such as security, change management and leadership with authority. In his keynotes and workshops, he considers a range of threats from Internet crime to foreign and home-grown terrorism, corruption and drug abuse.

Lord Blair of Boughton is one of the UK’s most informed experts on strategic policing and security, business leadership and change management. His extensive experience spans over three decades and takes in senior leadership positions, including Chief Constable of the Surrey Police, Deputy Commissioner and then 24th Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police at Scotland Yard. An experienced and compelling public speaker, Lord Blair is now in great demand for corporate events as a keynote speaker.

Lord Blair was instrumental in the transformation of the Met’s organisational structure and the 53,000-strong police workforce. He pioneered the introduction of Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs), the largest ever expansion of community policing in London, and led initiatives that significantly increased minority recruitment. He represented the Met as its spokesperson in politics and the media throughout his tenure, including during the London bombings of 2005.

After retiring from the police force in 2008, Lord Blair published his autobiography, Policing Controversy, in 2009. His unique experience ‘at the coal face’, balancing operational requirements with political and media pressures in his role as Met Commissioner, has seen him become an engaging and informed speaker and writer. He has long experience in public speaking, including the 2005 Dimbleby Lecture, with his passionate views and expertise sought widely by leaders and decision-makers in policing, business, politics and academia. He also appears often as a media commentator, having presented a documentary on the ‘Future of Policing’ for BBC Newsnight and contributing to BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme during the 2015 General Election.

Oxford-educated, Lord Blair holds honorary positions at several Oxford colleges and in 2010 he became the co-director of a training programme for senior police executives in India, led by the University of Cambridge’s Institute of Criminology.

He is a trustee of St Paul’s Cathedral Foundation and chair of the Thames Valley Partnership, an Oxfordshire-based criminal justice charity. In 2010, Sir Ian Blair became Lord Blair of Boughton, a crossbench Peer in the House of Lords. He is also Chair of the Wolf Institute a research centre dedicated to interfaith exploration.

Former Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police at Scotland Yard, Lord Blair is an engaging and informed speaker able to cover current affairs, crisis management, leadership and strategic change.