Lord Weidenfeld

Biographical Information
"Born in Vienna in 1919, George Weidenfeld left Austria for England in 1938. During World War II he worked with the BBC Overseas Service and in 1948 founded the publishing firm Weidenfeld & Nicolson, with Nigel Nicolson. In 1949 he became Political Advisor and Chef de Cabinet in Israel to President Weizmann, and spent a year in this capacity.

"A British citizen since 1946, Lord Weidenfeld was awarded a peerage in 1976. From 1992 to 1994, he was Vice-Chairman of the University of Oxford Campaign and since 1994, Vice-President of the Oxford University Development Programme. He is involved with the Europaeum network of postgraduate Institutes of European Affairs. He has several honorary degrees from universities across Europe including the Diplomatic College Vienna and the University of Exeter. He is an Honorary Fellow of both St. Anne's College and St. Peter's College, Oxford and of King's College London. He was made an Honorary Senator of Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, Bonn (1996), and Magister, Diplomatic College Vienna (1999). He received the Charlemagne Medal for European Media in Aachen (Germany, 2000) and the London Book Fair/Trilogy Lifetime Achievement Award for International Publishing in 2007. He holds the German Knights Commanders Cross (Badge & Star) of the Order of Merit (1991), the Austrian Cross of Honour First Class for Arts and Science (2002), the Decoration of Honour in Gold for Services to the County of Vienna (2003) and the Italian Grand Officer of the Order of Merit (2005). In 2008 he signed the Golden Book of the City of Potsdam (Germany).

"Among other appointments he is Chairman of Weidenfeld & Nicolson; President of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue; Director of Cheyne Capital Management; Honorary Chairman, of the Board of Governors, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; Board Member of Herbert Quandt Foundation Bad Homburg; consultant to the Bertelsmann Foundation and columnist for Die Welt and Welt am Sonntag (Berlin)."

Affiliations

 * Honorary Member, Club of Rome
 * International Advisory Board, New Atlantic Initiative
 * Director, East-West Institute
 * President, Israel APPG