Catherine Meyer
Encyclopedia
Catherine Irene Meyer, Lady Meyer (born 26 January 1953) is the wife of Sir Christopher Meyer
, the former British Ambassador to the United States. She is the founder of the charity Parents & Abducted Children Together (PACT).
. She went into financial services, working in the 1970s and 80s at Merrill Lynch, Dean Witter and E.F. Hutton. In 1979 she was one of the first women to be licensed as a commodity broker. Her Handbook on the Mechanism of the London Metal Exchange Option Market was published in 1982. In 1983 she registered as a stockbroker. In 1985 she abandoned her career to move to Germany with her German husband, by whom she had two sons. After her marriage ended, she returned to London and the financial services sector at the Sanpaolo Bank. Despite having custody of her children, their father refused to return them to London after a summer holiday visit in 1994. This led to her almost decade-long legal battle in the German and English courts to gain access to her sons. It was not until 2003 that she was able to see them again. Her account of these events is to be found in her two books - Two Children behind a Wall and They Are My Children Too. There is also an account in DC Confidential, the memoirs of her husband, Christopher Meyer.
In October 1997 she married Meyer on the eve of his departure to Washington to become British Ambassador to the United States. During their five and a half years in America, she campaigned against international parental child abduction alongside a number of American parents in a similar situation with Germany.
In 1998 she co-founded the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, the international arm of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
(NCMEC), subsequently becoming CEO of ICMEC/Europe. In 2000 she created PACT, affiliated to NCMEC and ICMEC.
During her time in Washington D.C., Meyer co-chaired with Ernie Allen
two international conferences on improving the effectiveness of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction and gave evidence to committees of the US Congress
and the US Senate
which led to several concurrent resolutions urging better compliance by certain signatory states, including Germany, with the Hague Convention 1996
; and persuaded both Presidents Clinton
and Bush
to raise with the German Chancellor cases of parental child abduction to Germany, including her own.
She has also taken her campaign against international parental child abduction to Europe, giving a seminar to the Belgian Senate.; successfully lobbying the EU to tighten its rules against parental child abduction; and, together with ICMEC, persuading the Permanent Bureau of the Hague Convention to produce a good practice guide to the implementation of the Convention.
In the UK Meyer instigated adjournment debates in the House of Commons on her case and the issue of parental child abduction in general across frontiers. In 2005 the Parliamentary Ombudsman upheld her complaint of maladministration against the then Lord Chancellor's Department with regard to the handling of her case.
Since 2003 and her return to the UK from America, she has broadened PACT's mission to embrace children who go missing for any reason. This has led to close cooperation with the Home Office, the police, CEOP and other charities. She is a member of the Home Secretary's Strategic Oversight Group on missing people, created in 2006 by David Blunkett. Her campaigns have focussed on improving data collection on how many children go missing and why; the adoption by police forces of the Missingkids Website, and the Child Rescue Alert; and the creation of a child-focussed national resource centre, bringing together police, government, charities and the private sector and modeled on the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. On 25 May 2011, International Missing Children's Day, the Home Office announced major changes to child protection services in the UK, in particular the passing of responsibility for missing, abducted and exploited children to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection agency (CEOP). This was the culmination of a ten-year lobbying campaign. Meyer's role was recognised in the Home Office press release.
In 2003 Meyer was co-chair of Vote 2004, which campaigned for a referendum on the still-born European Constitution. She is a National Treasurer of the Conservative Party.
From 2003 to 2007 she was a non-executive director of LIFFE (London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange).
In 1999 she received the Adam Walsh Rainbow Award for outstanding contribution to children's causes and was named by British Airways Business Life magazine for her campaigning on behalf of abducted children. In 2009 and 2010 PACT successfully passed rigorous inspection and audit by, respectively, the City Bridge Trust and the financial services company ICAP to qualify for major donations.
During her time in Washington Meyer was entrusted with the last major redecoration of the Ambassador's residence, a building designed by the eminent British architect, Sir Edwin Lutyens, and built in the 1920s. Under her guidance the reception rooms were redecorated, the bedrooms redesigned and the bathrooms modernised.
Christopher Meyer
Sir Christopher John Rome Meyer, KCMG is a former British Ambassador to the United States , former Ambassador to Germany and the former chairman of the Press Complaints Commission...
, the former British Ambassador to the United States. She is the founder of the charity Parents & Abducted Children Together (PACT).
Background and Career
Meyer is the daughter of Maurice and Olga Laylle. She has British and French nationality and was educated at the Lycée Charles de Gaulle in London. She has a degree in Russian regional studies from the London School of Slavonic and East European StudiesSchool of Slavonic and East European Studies
The UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies is a school of University College London . It is the largest centre for the study and research of Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, and Russia in the United Kingdom...
. She went into financial services, working in the 1970s and 80s at Merrill Lynch, Dean Witter and E.F. Hutton. In 1979 she was one of the first women to be licensed as a commodity broker. Her Handbook on the Mechanism of the London Metal Exchange Option Market was published in 1982. In 1983 she registered as a stockbroker. In 1985 she abandoned her career to move to Germany with her German husband, by whom she had two sons. After her marriage ended, she returned to London and the financial services sector at the Sanpaolo Bank. Despite having custody of her children, their father refused to return them to London after a summer holiday visit in 1994. This led to her almost decade-long legal battle in the German and English courts to gain access to her sons. It was not until 2003 that she was able to see them again. Her account of these events is to be found in her two books - Two Children behind a Wall and They Are My Children Too. There is also an account in DC Confidential, the memoirs of her husband, Christopher Meyer.
In October 1997 she married Meyer on the eve of his departure to Washington to become British Ambassador to the United States. During their five and a half years in America, she campaigned against international parental child abduction alongside a number of American parents in a similar situation with Germany.
In 1998 she co-founded the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, the international arm of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is a private, non-profit organization established in 1984 by the United States Congress.-Establishment and overview:...
(NCMEC), subsequently becoming CEO of ICMEC/Europe. In 2000 she created PACT, affiliated to NCMEC and ICMEC.
During her time in Washington D.C., Meyer co-chaired with Ernie Allen
Ernie Allen
Ernie Allen is an attorney serving as the President & CEO of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and a former Director of Public Health & Safety for the City of Louisville, Kentucky. He is a graduate of the University of Louisville where he became a member of Phi Kappa Tau...
two international conferences on improving the effectiveness of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction and gave evidence to committees of the US Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
and the US Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
which led to several concurrent resolutions urging better compliance by certain signatory states, including Germany, with the Hague Convention 1996
Hague Convention 1996
The Convention of 19 October 1996 on Jurisdiction, Applicable Law, Recognition, Enforcement and Co-operation in respect of Parental Responsibility and Measures for the Protection of Children or Hague Convention 1996 is a convention of the Hague Conference on Private International Law...
; and persuaded both Presidents Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
and Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
to raise with the German Chancellor cases of parental child abduction to Germany, including her own.
She has also taken her campaign against international parental child abduction to Europe, giving a seminar to the Belgian Senate.; successfully lobbying the EU to tighten its rules against parental child abduction; and, together with ICMEC, persuading the Permanent Bureau of the Hague Convention to produce a good practice guide to the implementation of the Convention.
In the UK Meyer instigated adjournment debates in the House of Commons on her case and the issue of parental child abduction in general across frontiers. In 2005 the Parliamentary Ombudsman upheld her complaint of maladministration against the then Lord Chancellor's Department with regard to the handling of her case.
Since 2003 and her return to the UK from America, she has broadened PACT's mission to embrace children who go missing for any reason. This has led to close cooperation with the Home Office, the police, CEOP and other charities. She is a member of the Home Secretary's Strategic Oversight Group on missing people, created in 2006 by David Blunkett. Her campaigns have focussed on improving data collection on how many children go missing and why; the adoption by police forces of the Missingkids Website, and the Child Rescue Alert; and the creation of a child-focussed national resource centre, bringing together police, government, charities and the private sector and modeled on the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. On 25 May 2011, International Missing Children's Day, the Home Office announced major changes to child protection services in the UK, in particular the passing of responsibility for missing, abducted and exploited children to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection agency (CEOP). This was the culmination of a ten-year lobbying campaign. Meyer's role was recognised in the Home Office press release.
In 2003 Meyer was co-chair of Vote 2004, which campaigned for a referendum on the still-born European Constitution. She is a National Treasurer of the Conservative Party.
From 2003 to 2007 she was a non-executive director of LIFFE (London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange).
In 1999 she received the Adam Walsh Rainbow Award for outstanding contribution to children's causes and was named by British Airways Business Life magazine for her campaigning on behalf of abducted children. In 2009 and 2010 PACT successfully passed rigorous inspection and audit by, respectively, the City Bridge Trust and the financial services company ICAP to qualify for major donations.
During her time in Washington Meyer was entrusted with the last major redecoration of the Ambassador's residence, a building designed by the eminent British architect, Sir Edwin Lutyens, and built in the 1920s. Under her guidance the reception rooms were redecorated, the bedrooms redesigned and the bathrooms modernised.
Books
- Catherine Laylle (1997), Two Children Behind a Wall, Arrow Books Ltd. (ISBN 0-099-25504-9)
- Catherine Meyer (1999), These are My Children, Too, PublicAffairs,U.S. (ISBN 1-891-62015-0)