Director Commonwealth Disaster Management Agency (CDMA)
Robert Lyle is Director of the Commonwealth and Global Disaster Management Agency (CDMA), offering insurance to governments to mitigate against the financial effects of meteorological and geological natural disasters.
In 1999, Mr Lyle – as a member of a workshop organised by the Commonwealth Secretariat and the World Bank – founded CDMA along with the then Deputy Secretary General, Sir Humphrey Maud. Mr Lyle is also Managing Partner of Lyle & Partners, an advisory business specialising in emerging markets risk and opportunities.
Mr Lyle read History at Oriel College, Oxford University. His principal career has been in export credit and political risk insurance. He is one of the founding members and currently Non-Executive Director of Berry, Palmer and Lyle. Now known as BPL Global, it is considered to be one of the world’s leading independent political risk brokerage firms. Mr Lyle is also Vice President of the British Overseas Territories of the British Red Cross Society, and was appointed as a UN director for global networking for disaster reduction in 2009.
Mr Lyle spent 10 years in China as one of Dr Henry Kissinger’s advisors. He also worked alongside PricewaterhouseCoopers to consult on the viability of contracts within the People’s Republic. Following his time in China, he was appointed EU Advisor in 1991 to the Russian Government on investment Insurance. He was also the worldwide correspondent to China International Economic Consultant from 1983 to 1988, and undertook one of the first ever country research programs on New Europe from 1989 to 1991, researching the future investment climates on behalf of the European Commission.
Mr Lyle spent many years as an advisor to the World Energy Council on trade and political risk insurance, as well as an advisor to the African Trade Insurance program, a World Bank initiative based in Nairobi. From 1992 to 1993, he was active as an advisor to the Islamic Development Bank on export credit regimes.
Mr Lyle is an Emeritus Trustee of the China Oxford Scholarship Fund, a member of the Advisory Group for Natural Disaster Reduction in the UK, and a former rapporteur for Wilton Park (a branch of the FCO). He was also recently appointed as an advisor to the St John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital Group, as well as the first President of the recently formed Commonwealth Beekeepers Association.