John Dennis (diplomat)

John David Dennis Jr. (born 6 August 1959)[3] is a British diplomat who was the British Ambassador to Angola from 2014 to 2018 and the Director of Green Corridors and Ivory Trade at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for the Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference 2018. He is currently the British Representative to Taiwan, heading the British Office Taipei.[4]

John Dennis
Representative, British Office Taipei
Assumed office
December 2020
MonarchsElizabeth II
Charles III
Prime MinisterBoris Johnson
Liz Truss
Rishi Sunak
Preceded byAndrew Pittam (acting)
British Ambassador to Angola
In office
February 2014 – March 2018
MonarchElizabeth II
Prime MinisterDavid Cameron
Theresa May
Preceded byRichard Wildash
Succeeded byJessica Hand
Personal details
Born (1959-08-06) 6 August 1959
NationalityBritish
SpouseJillian Margaret Dennis
RelationsHugh Dennis (brother)
ParentJohn Dennis (father)
Alma materUniversity of Cambridge
OccupationDiplomat
[1][2]

Consular career

Dennis joined the FCO in 1981 as a Desk Officer for Tanzania and Uganda. In 1982, he started a language course to become proficient at Mandarin and in 1985, was posted to the Embassy of the United Kingdom, Beijing as second secretary.[5]

In 1987 Dennis was recalled to the FCO to be head of the Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei section. He stayed in this post until 1989 when he was re-assigned to be the head of the Recruitment Section. In 1992 Dennis was posted abroad again to Kuala Lumpur to be the head of the Political Section of the High Commission there. In 1996 he took a secondment and became the Special Adviser to the chairman of Standard Chartered Bank for two years.[5]

On his return to full-time civil service work in 1998, he was appointed the Director of Motor Vehicles at the Department of Trade and Industry. Dennis was posted to New Delhi in 2001 to be Director for Trade and Investment and in 2003 he was made Deputy Head of Mission in Beijing. He stayed there for three years, until he was recalled to be an additional Director for Asia in the FCO.[5]

For a short time in 2009 Dennis worked in the Local Staff Strategy Review but was very quickly given the job of the Head of the Zimbabwe Unit at the Africa Directorate at the FCO. In 2010, he was made the Head of the Central and Southern Africa Department.[5]

He stayed in this post until his appointment as U.K. Ambassador to Angola in February 2014, succeeding Richard Wildash. In his time as Ambassador in Luanda, Dennis oversaw the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding and led "successful ... efforts to deepen cooperation between Angola and the UK".[6] He left the post in February 2018, being replaced by Jessica Hand. After being recalled, Dennis worked on the Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference in October 2018 in London.[4]

Personal life

Dennis is married and has two sons.[5] He can speak Mandarin.[4]

He is the son of bishop John Dennis and older brother of the actor and comedian Hugh Dennis.[7]

References
  1. "British Diplomats Directory: Part 1 of 4". issuu. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  2. Mackie, Colin (2020), British Diplomats Directory (PDF), FCO Historians, p. 140, archived from the original (PDF) on 12 January 2021, retrieved 12 January 2021
  3. Anon (2020). "Dennis, John David". Who's Who. A & C Black. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  4. "John Dennis". GOV.UK. Archived from the original on 5 January 2021. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  5. "Change of Her Majesty's Ambassador to Angola". GOV.UK. Archived from the original on 23 July 2019. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
  6. "British Ambassador John Dennis bids farewell to Luanda, Angola". GOV.UK. Archived from the original on 24 July 2019. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
  7. McGrath, Nick (16 January 2015). "Hugh Dennis: My family values". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 14 October 2020. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
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