Matt Clifford becomes Anthropic's managing director for international affairs and keeps the Aria chair
Matt Clifford is becoming Anthropic's managing director for international affairs and will run the company's engagement with governments outside the US from London, among them the UK, Europe, Asia-Pacific and India. Clifford, who drafted the UK government's AI action plan, keeps the chair of Aria, the publicly funded research agency, and of Entrepreneurs First, which he co-founded. Chi Onwurah, who chairs the Commons science committee, called holding both a clear conflict of interest and asked the AI minister to set the boundaries.
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Clifford takes charge of Anthropic's London-based international team
Matt Clifford announced on LinkedIn that he is taking the post of managing director for international affairs at Anthropic. The London-based job covers the company's dealings with governments outside the US, among them the UK, Europe, the Asia-Pacific region and India. Clifford wrote that the decisions shaping AI's impact should not be left to any single actor and that industry, governments and civil society have to work together. In the new job Clifford reports to Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, Anthropic's first chief global affairs officer, who previously served as president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and is a trustee of the company's Long-Term Benefit Trust. An Anthropic spokesperson said the UK was one of dozens of governments Clifford's team would engage with.[1], [2]
The Aria and Entrepreneurs First chairs stay with Clifford
Anthropic said Clifford would remain chair of Aria, which funds pioneering research with public money, and of Entrepreneurs First, the firm he co-founded with Alice Bentinck in 2011. Clifford was appointed chair of Aria in 2022; in 2023 he represented the then prime minister, Rishi Sunak, at the AI safety summit at Bletchley Park and helped create the body that became the AI Security Institute. Keir Starmer asked him in January 2025 to prepare the government's AI opportunities action plan and kept him on as an unpaid adviser to carry it out. Clifford left that role at the end of July 2025, after six months, for personal reasons.[1], [2]
Onwurah calls the Aria chair a conflict of interest
Chi Onwurah, who chairs the Commons science, innovation and technology committee, called the intention to stay on as chair of Aria, which spends taxpayer money on cutting-edge research, a clear conflict of interest, and asked the AI minister, Kanishka Narayan, to set out the boundaries. Clifford is understood to be stepping back from Aria matters involving Anthropic. Tom Brake, chief executive of Unlock Democracy, said the move showed the revolving door is a problem for advisers as much as for ministers. Similar passages include Nick Clegg going to Meta, Rishi Sunak taking advisory roles with Microsoft and Anthropic, and George Osborne joining OpenAI.[1], [2]
