Alan Lee Williams is chairman of the Atlantic Treaty Association and the director of The Atlantic Council of the United Kingdom. Prior to his appointment in 2000, he was director of the Atlantic Council. Previously he served as warden and chief executive of Toynbee Hall and director-general of the English-Speaking Union of the Commonwealth.

Among his many activities, Williams is former chairman of the European Working Group of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. He served as Labour member of parliament for Hornchurch from 1966 to 1970, from March to October 1974 and from 1974 to 1979. Williams also served as parliamentary private secretary to the secretary of state for defense from 1968-70 and subsequently with The Rt. Hon Roy Mason, with whom he also served as PPS in Northern Ireland (1976-79). He was leader of the United Kingdom Delegation to the North Atlantic Assembly from 1975 to 1979. Williams is the author of numerous publications on Europe and its defense, and on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).