The Ditchley Foundation based at Ditchley Park near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, aims to promote international understanding and relations, especially Anglo-American relations, through a programme of around twelve annual conferences on matters of international interest. The foundation was established in 1958 by Sir David Wills, descendant of the tobacco importing family, W. D. & H. O. Wills of Bristol.
At each conference, around forty international invitees are drawn from senior levels of politics, business, the armed forces, media, and academia. The current director is Sir John Holmes GCVO, KBE, CMG, former British diplomat, and recently Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator at the United Nations, New York.
Discussion at each two-day conference begins with all members present, before participants divide into three sub-groups, each having its own chairman and rapporteur to summarise proceedings. Proceedings end with one more conference-wide session. Discussions are private and non-attributable, under the Chatham House Rule, but a full account is produced by the Director, and posted on the Foundations website.
Sister organisations, American and Canadian Ditchley, help to shape the conference programme as well as select American and Canadian participants.
Read more about Ditchley Foundation: Notable Members
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