Laurie is the president of Hughes Hall, Cambridge.

Growing up in Colchester, he was the first person in his family to go to university. He read English at Trinity College, Cambridge, and completed a PhD on Ezra Pound, the American poet.

Laurie joined the United Kingdom diplomatic service in 1990. His first overseas posting was to Romania in the spring of 1992, where he worked for three years during the post-communist transition.

Laurie served as Ambassador for the United Kingdom three times. He was Ambassador to Afghanistan during the fall of the Republic to the Taliban in August 2021 and the UK’s subsequent evacuation of over 15,000 people from Kabul airport. He was the UK’s Ambassador to Russia from 2016 to 2020, and Deputy Ambassador to Russia from 2007 to 2010. He was Ambassador to Azerbaijan from 2004 to 2007. He was knighted in 2019, for services to British foreign policy.