John David Dennis Jr. (born 6 August 1959) is a British diplomat who was the

British Ambassador to Angola The Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Angola is the United Kingdom's foremost Diplomat, diplomatic representative in the Republic of Angola, and head of the UK's diplomatic mission in Luanda. Since 1980 the British ambassador to Angola is Dual ...

from 2014 to 2018 and the Director of Green Corridors and Ivory Trade at the

Foreign and Commonwealth Office The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, department of the Government of the United Kingdom. Equivalent to other countries' Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ministries of fore ...

for the Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference 2018. He is currently the British Representative to Taiwan, heading the

British Office Taipei British Office Taipei (), formerly British Trade and Cultural Office (BTCO), is the representative office of the United Kingdom Government in Taiwan with a principal role to promote the British trade and investment interests. It functions as a ...

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 Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

and in 1985, was posted to the Embassy of the United Kingdom, Beijing as second secretary. 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 The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

Standard Chartered Bank Standard Chartered plc is a multinational bank with operations in consumer, corporate and institutional banking, and treasury services. Despite being headquartered in the United Kingdom, it does not conduct retail banking in the UK, and around ...

for two years. On his return to full-time

civil service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

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. 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. 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". 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.

Personal life

Dennis is married and has two sons. He can speak

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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dennis, John David Living people Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Angola Representatives of the United Kingdom to Taiwan Alumni of the University of Cambridge 1959 births