Robert Andrew Burns

Sir Robert Andrew Burns (born 21 July 1943) is a British former diplomat in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Early life
Burns was born on 21 July 1943 and educated at Highgate School. He graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, with a Master of Arts (MA).

Diplomatic career
Burns served with the Diplomatic Service between 1965 and 2003, beginning his career as an Urdu and Hindi speaker at the British High Commission in New Delhi in the 1960s. Serving in New Delhi between 1967 and 1971, the later returned to London where he served as the United Kingdom's Delegate to the Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe between 1975 and 1981. He later became Head of South Asia Department between 1986 and 1988.

He held the office of Ambassador to Israel between 1992 and 1995. He was later appointed as British Consul-General to Hong Kong and Macau, serving between 1997 and 2000. He then became British High Commissioner to Canada, serving from 2000 to 2003.

Subsequent career
In June 2005, Burns was appointed to the BBC's Board of Governors as International Governor, replacing Dame Pauline Neville-Jones.

In June 2010, he was appointed the United Kingdom's first Envoy for post-Holocaust issues. He held this post until September 2015. He was succeeded in the role by Sir Eric Pickles.

He was Chair of Council of Royal Holloway, a constituent college of the University of London. He was appointed to succeed Lady Deech as the chair of the Bar Standards Board from 1 January 2015.

Burns was also previously Chairman of the China Association between 2008 and 2014 and is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (RSA).