Paul Flaherty joined the UK Ministry of Defence in 1978.  He held a series of finance and policy posts: introduced the first MOD catalogue for IT and was Deputy Director International Organisations from 1989-95. Promoted 1* in 1995, he served with the Office of the Health Ombudsman before taking up the post of Defence Counsellor in the UK Delegation to the OSCE in Vienna. He was the Chief UK Negotiator for the Adapted CFE Treaty and the Charter for European Security. He chaired the negotiation of the OSCE document on Small Arms and Light Weapons. On his return to London, he was appointed Director €uro and in 2002 became the Civil Secretary (Head of J8 and J9) of the UK’s Permanent Joint Headquarters, covering UK operations throughout the world including Afghanistan and Iraq.  He became Defence Counsellor in the UK Delegation to NATO in 2004. He took up his current post of Deputy Permanent Representative in the UK Delegation in September 2008.