Antony Vinall

Antony Vinall studied at the City of London School and Clare College, Cambridge (MA in English Literature).  He joined the Civil Service Fast Stream and worked on a variety of assignments in policy areas relating to industry, trade and consumer protection, including the Prime Minister’s Working Party on the Film Industry, consumer aspects of the EEC’s Common Agricultural Policy and the IT industry.  He also spent a year on secondment to the Turner & Newall group of companies in Manchester.

From 1985 to 1989 he was posted to the UK Permanent Representation to the European Communities (UKRep) in Brussels as First Secretary for Industry and Competition.  After a role in export promotion work which centered on co-ordinating the UK’s contribution to reconstruction in Kuwait after the First Gulf War, from 1991 to 1995 he served as Minister-Counsellor (Trade) in the British Embassy in Washington DC.  He returned to the Department for Trade & Industry as Director (Automotive), responsible for relations with the major international car manufacturers, before returning to UKRep as head of the Industry and Internal Market Section from 1998 to 2006.  Here he played a central role in orchestrating the UK’s position on a number of major pieces of legislation in areas such as transport, energy, services, intellectual property and consumer protection, culminating in the last UK Presidency of the Council where he chaired the Council Working Group on the REACH Regulation (chemical safety), securing agreement at Ministerial level on one of the most complex ever pieces of EU legislation.

On retiring after 33 years in the Civil Service, he became an Associate of European strategy and policy consulants Gplus (2006-19), as well as a regular contributor to CPDS courses in the UK and EU. He was until recently Secretary of the William Blake Society.