Thomas ROE
Head of Office
European Union – Office of the European Commission in Hong Kong
Curriculum vitae
Tom ROE has been Head of the European Commission’s Office in Hong Kong and to Macau since 11th November 2004. As a European Commission official since 1980 Tom ROE has wide experience of the policy and implementation of European external relations most recently as the European Commission’s Counsellor/Coordinator for the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) policy dialogue with Asian countries (2002-2004) and previously of:
- Political, commercial and aid relations with Indonesia and East Timor (2000-2002)
- The European Union’s policy and financing role in private sector investment worldwide (1992-2000)
- Emergency and food aid to developing countries worldwide (1989-1991)
- Political relations with, and development aid for Southern Africa (1984-1989)
- Delivery, financing and co-financing of European Commission aid to African, Caribbean and Pacific states (1980-1983).
Tom ROE has at the same time also been a Visiting Professor at various universities teaching full courses to postgraduate students at:
- The Open University, United Kingdom, 2002-2004 (on Aspects of European and National Cultural Identities)
- George Mason University, Washington D.C., School of Public Policy, 2000-2001, (on Globalisation and European Public Policy)
- London Business School, 1982-1992, (on Management in the Developing Countries and on the European Single Market)
Lloyds Bank, Assistant Manager in London, Paris, Cairo, Bahrain and Dubai (1974-1977)
McKinsey and Company, London, Management Consultant (1979-1980)
Independent economics researcher, consultant and writer (1977-1979)
After school in St. Albans, England Tom ROE obtained undergraduate university qualifications from Sydney (Anthropology) University College London (Economics and Geography - First Class Honours), and the Open University of the UK (Postcolonial Literature – First Class Honours). At postgraduate level he has Masters degrees from the London Business School (MBA – Business Administration) and from the Open University of the UK (Cultural Studies - Masters with Distinction. Research topic: The significance for individual and cultural identity of tropes of house garden and landscape in V. S. Naipaul’s fiction). He has also been a visiting Kennedy Scholar in international finance at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and International Business Management Visiting Scholar at New York University, Stern Business School and Hautes Etudes Commerciales, Jouy-en-Josas, Paris.
Full name: Andrew Thomas ROE. Born: 18th March 1950, Hampstead, London. British.
Languages: English, French (Fluent), Spanish (basic reading), Arabic (basic notions).
Hobbies: exploring cultural and individual identities through travel and through cultural artefacts – particularly literary texts, gardening especially of trees, sailing and swimming.
December 2004