Sir Roderic Lyne KCMG was a member of the British Diplomatic Service from 1970-2004. He was the UK Ambassador to the Russian Federation from 2000 to 2004; UK Permanent Representative to the World Trade Organisation, the UN and other international organisations in Geneva from 1997-2000; and Private Secretary to Prime Minister John Major for foreign affairs, defence and Northern Ireland from 1993-96.

From 1990-93 he was head of the Soviet and then Eastern Department of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and from 1987-90 Head of Chancery at the British Embassy in Moscow.

In his earlier career Roderic served in the Soviet Union, Senegal and at the UK Mission to the United Nations in New York, as well as in the Soviet and Rhodesian departments of the Foreign Office and as Assistant Private Secretary to the Foreign Secretary, Lord Carrington. From 1986-87 he was a Visiting Research Fellow at Chatham House.

From 2005-07 Roderic was a member of the Task Force of the Trilateral Commission on Russia and a co-author, with Strobe Talbott and Koji Watanabe, of the report to the Commission Engaging with Russia: The Next Phase (published in English and Japanese in 2006 and in Russian in 2007).