Matthew Glanville is one of the more unusual figures in British public life: a former army officer who fought in Iraq, returned as an adviser to the American military there, delivered anti-corruption programmes in Afghanistan and Tanzania, and now runs a grants practice at KPMG. He is also, to the part of the internet that searches his name, married to Annunziata Rees-Mogg.
Quick Bio / At a Glance
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Name | Matthew Glanville |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | Modern History, Balliol College, University of Oxford |
| Military Service | British Army; served in Iraq in 2006 |
| Advisory Role | Special adviser to the Governor of Anbar Province, Iraq (2008) |
| Current Role | Director, Infrastructure, Government and Healthcare; leads the Grants Centre of Excellence, KPMG UK |
| Also Worked In | Afghanistan and Tanzania, on governance and anti-corruption programmes |
| Writing | Commentary on Iraq, Islamic State and British intelligence |
| Spouse | Annunziata Rees-Mogg, married November 6, 2010, in Lucca, Italy |
| Children | Three |
Oxford, then Iraq
Education
Glanville read Modern History at Balliol College, Oxford. It is a conventional route into the British establishment, and an unconventional preparation for what came next.
Service in 2006
He served as a British Army officer and fought in Iraq in 2006 — the most violent phase of the occupation, when sectarian conflict had escalated well beyond what the coalition had planned for.
Return to Anbar in 2008
He returned to Iraq in 2008 in a different capacity, as a special adviser working with the American military in Anbar Province. Anbar was the centre of the Sunni insurgency and, by 2008, of the Awakening movement that turned significant parts of it.
Advising a provincial governorate in that environment is a governance job conducted in a war zone, and it sets up everything he has done professionally since.
Governance and Anti-Corruption Work
After Iraq he delivered anti-corruption and governance programmes in Afghanistan and Tanzania on behalf of the British and American governments. The common thread is public money: how it moves, where it leaks, and what institutional design stops it.
That is a specialism with limited glamour and considerable demand, and it transferred directly into the private sector.
KPMG and the Grants Centre of Excellence
Glanville is a director in KPMG UK’s Infrastructure, Government and Healthcare practice, where he leads the firm’s Grants Centre of Excellence.
The work concerns the design, distribution and assurance of government grant funding — ensuring large public disbursements reach intended recipients without fraud or misallocation. He has overseen the distribution of tens of millions of pounds in grants.
The line from Anbar to a grants practice is straighter than it looks. Both are fundamentally about whether public money survives contact with the system that spends it.
Public Commentary
Glanville has written publicly on foreign policy, including a 2014 piece for ConservativeHome arguing that the rise of Islamic State represented a failure of British intelligence. His commentary draws on the Iraq experience rather than on party positioning.
Marriage to Annunziata Rees-Mogg
Glanville married the journalist and former politician Annunziata Rees-Mogg on November 6, 2010, in Lucca, Italy. They have three children.
Rees-Mogg is a freelance financial and political journalist who has been a leader writer at The Daily Telegraph, deputy editor of MoneyWeek and editor of the European Journal. She stood twice as a Conservative parliamentary candidate and was elected a Brexit Party MEP for the East Midlands in 2019, serving until British seats in the European Parliament were abolished in January 2020. She is the sister of the Conservative politician Jacob Rees-Mogg.
A Note on Identification
There is more than one professional named Matthew Glanville in public search results, including a wind engineering specialist based in Australia. This profile concerns the British consultant and former army officer married to Annunziata Rees-Mogg. The two are unrelated.
Related profiles: Michael Popok and Rob Beckett.
