Valerie Amos, Baroness Amos

The Right Honourable
The Baroness Amos
LG CH PC
Official portrait, 2013
United Nations Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator
In office
1 September 2010 – 29 May 2015
Secretary-GeneralBan Ki-moon
Preceded byJohn Holmes
Succeeded byStephen O'Brien
British High Commissioner to Australia
In office
1 October 2009 – 1 September 2010
MonarchElizabeth II
Prime MinisterGordon Brown
David Cameron
Preceded byHelen Liddell
Succeeded byPaul Madden
Leader of the House of Lords
Lord President of the Council
In office
6 October 2003 – 27 June 2007
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Preceded byThe Lord Williams of Mostyn
Succeeded byThe Baroness Ashton of Upholland
Secretary of State for International Development
In office
12 May 2003 – 6 October 2003
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Preceded byClare Short
Succeeded byHilary Benn
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
In office
12 June 2001 – 12 May 2003
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Preceded byThe Baroness Scotland of Asthal
Succeeded byChris Mullin
Baroness-in-Waiting
Government Whip
In office
28 July 1998 – 11 June 2001
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Preceded byThe Baroness Gould of Potternewton
Succeeded byThe Lord Bassam of Brighton
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Incumbent
Assumed office
24 September 1997
Life peerage
Personal details
Born
Valerie Ann Amos

(1954-03-13) 13 March 1954 (age 70)[1]
Georgetown, British Guiana (now Guyana)
Political partyLabour
Alma materUniversity of Birmingham
University of Warwick
University of East Anglia

Valerie Ann Amos, Baroness Amos, LG, CH, PC (born 13 March 1954) is a British Labour Party politician and diplomat who served as the eighth UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. Before her appointment to the UN, she served as British High Commissioner to Australia. She was created a life peer in 1997, serving as Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Council from 2003 to 2007.

When she was appointed Secretary of State for International Development on 12 May 2003, following the resignation of Clare Short, Amos became the first Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) woman to serve as a Cabinet minister. She left the Cabinet when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister. In July 2010, Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon announced Baroness Amos's appointment to the role of Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.[2] She took up the position on 1 September 2010 and remained in post until 29 May 2015. In September 2015, Amos was appointed Director of SOAS, University of London,[3] becoming the first black woman to lead a university in the United Kingdom.[4]

Since September 2020, Amos has been Master of University College, Oxford, succeeding Sir Ivor Crewe and becoming the first-ever black head of an Oxford college, as well as the first woman to head that college.[5][6]

  1. ^ "2018 - Wits honours Baroness Valerie Amos with an honorary Doctorate in Literature". University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. 5 December 2018. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  2. ^ "New UN humanitarian chief among five senior officials appointed by Ban". UN News Centre. United Nations. 9 July 2010. Archived from the original on 14 May 2011. Retrieved 10 July 2010.
  3. ^ "Valerie Amos to be ninth Director of SOAS, University of London". SOAS University of London. 29 June 2015. Archived from the original on 26 January 2017. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  4. ^ Wynne-Jones, Jonathan (19 July 2015). "Baroness Amos: I was taken aback when I found out I was the first black female head of a university". The Observer – via The Guardian.
  5. ^ "Baroness Valerie Amos appointed as Master of University College – First-ever black College Head appointed at Oxford". University of Oxford. 2 August 2019. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
  6. ^ "Valerie Amos appointed new Master". University College Oxford. August 2019. Retrieved 5 August 2019.