Adam Boys has worked in senior management of international public sector organisations since 1994 when he led a humanitarian assistance programme in Bosnia during the war. 

In 1995, he was seconded by the UK Foreign Office to work for the International Conference on Former Yugoslavia monitoring the border between the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Bosnia during the war there. From 1996 to 2000 he worked at the Office of the High Representative in Sarajevo and from 2000 to 2014, Boys was Chief Operating Officer at the International Commission of Missing Persons.

Boys qualified as a Chartered Accountant whilst working for KPMG and later worked for Pricewaterhouse Coopers. He is a Fellow (FCA) of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2015 for "services to conflict resolution and reconciliation." Boys is from Scotland.