Edward Mortimer was a UN civil servant, journalist, author and academic. He was Distinguished Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, from 2013. From 2001 to 2006, he was the Director of Communications in the Executive Office of the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and was the chief speechwriter from 1998 to 2006. He was the chair of the Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice from 2010 to 2015 and one of the key people integral to the creation of the Campaign.