 He is vice president of the Halifax International Security Forum, 

Shepherd began his working life as a journalist, in which capacity he worked for Reuters and "The Times".Born in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, Shepherd attended Ilkley Grammar School, a state school in the north of England.He studied Russian at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies - which today forms part of University College London - and gained a master's degree in political theory from the London School of Economics.