Robert Gates served as the 22nd secretary of defence, from 2006 to 2011, and is the only secretary of defence in US history to be asked to remain in that office by a newly elected President. President Barack Obama is the eighth president Gates has served. He previously served under President George W Bush. On Gates’ last day in office, President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honour. Gates joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1966 and spent nearly 27 years as an intelligence professional. During that period, he spent nine years at the National Security Council, the White House, serving four presidents of both political parties. Mark Ellis leads the foremost international organisation of bar associations, law firms and individual lawyers in the world. Dr Ellis has served as Legal Advisor to the Independent International Commission on Kosovo, chaired by Justice Richard J Goldstone and was appointed by OSCE to advise on the creation of Serbia’s War Crimes Tribunal. He was actively involved with the Iraqi High Tribunal and also acted as legal advisor to the defence team of Nuon Chea at the Cambodian War Crimes Tribunal (ECCC). In 2013, Dr Ellis was admitted to the List of Assistants to Counsel of the International Criminal Court. In 2015, he was appointed to the UN created Advisory Panel on Matters Relating to Defence Counsel of the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals.