The change takes place during an already turbulent period.
At the end of last year, Crown Prince William and wife Princess Kate announced that their then private secretary, Jean-Cristophe Gray, would leave in the spring of 2024. The royal couple opened a vacancy at the time and there is good news: the person who will take over from Gray has been announced!
Former private secretary
Jean-Christophe has now left Kensington Palace. The former private secretary entered the palace in February 2021. He took over from Christian Jones, who lasted less than a year with the British royals.
Before taking on this challenging position, Gray worked as head of General Expenditure Policy at the Ministry of Finance. He was also part of the PR team of then Prime Minister David Cameron in 2012. In short, to become Kate and Will’s private secretary you need a lot of work experience that you can say you’re proud of.
Ian Patrick
The man who can now take on this important task is Ian Patrick. Patrick also has an impressive resume. For example, the former government diplomat once worked for the late Liberal Democrat Paddy Ashdown. Every working member of the British royal family has a private secretary who acts as their principal’s right-hand man. At royal events and official visits they accompany their designated royal and act as their eyes and ears. Ian Patrick will now also manage the crown prince’s office and agenda.
It was striking, however, that this time Kate and William did not open a vacancy for a private secretary, but for a royal CEO. They described the role at the time as a ‘unique opportunity to join the dedicated team at Kensington Palace’.
Other vacancy
According to Richard Eden of The Daily Mail, the difference between the old and new functions is the length of the communication lines. The future royal CEO will therefore be in charge of the approximately sixty employees of the team that keeps Kensington Palace running.
But the person who passes the tough application procedure will be the only one in direct contact with the Royal Highnesses. Within the current system there are legions of different secretaries surrounding the royal family and reporting through the private secretary. The purpose of this change? A less traditional and hierarchical structure within Kensington Palace. And that is of course quite something for the classic British royal family. We are curious to see how Ian Patrick will do!
Source: Royal Central, The Daily Mail, Glamial archive | Image: NL Image
