Tony Blair

Tony Blair served as prime minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from May 1997 to June 2007. He was also the leader of Britain's Labour Party (1994 to 2007) and the member of Parliament for Sedgefield, England (1983 to 2007). After stepping down as prime minister, Mr. Blair was named official envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East, representing the United States, the United Nations, Russia and the European Union in helping the Palestinians to prepare for statehood as part of the international community's effort to secure peace. Mr. Blair has also contributed to diplomatic efforts on climate change and increasing the political and economic vitality of Africa.

Mr Blair continues to be active in public life. He launched the Tony Blair Faith Foundation in May 2008. The foundation promotes understanding between the major faiths, and increased understanding of the role of faith in the modern world. The Faith Foundation has also formed a partnership with the Yale Initiative on Faith and Globalization and Mr. Blair serves as the Howland Distinguished Fellow at Yale.

In recognition of his debt to the North East of England where he was a member of Parliament for 24 years, he has also launched the Tony Blair Sports Foundation to provide new opportunities for young people to take part in sport and coaches to teach them.

During his ten years as prime minister, Mr. Blair transformed Britain's public services through a program of investment and reform in schools and hospitals, resulting in more children achieving better school results and more people receiving faster access to health care, with improved survival rates for cancer and coronary heart disease.

Mr. Blair has always been a strong advocate of a values-based, activist, and multilateralist foreign policy—an agenda that combined tackling terrorism and intervention in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, and Sierra Leone with action on issues like climate change, global poverty, Africa, and the Middle East peace process. Mr. Blair is also widely credited for his contribution towards assisting the Northern Ireland Peace Process by helping jointly to negotiate the Good Friday Agreement and deliver a power-sharing government.