Jessica Mary Hand (née Pearce) is a British diplomat who has been 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 ...

since 2018. She was appointed as ambassador on 21 July 2017 and succeeded John Dennis in March the next year.

Consular career

Hand joined 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 ...

in 1985 and was first made Desk Officer for India,

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

, Bhutan and The Maldives. In 1986, she was moved to be Desk Officer for Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Hand was first posted abroad in 1987, to be a secretary at the Dakar consulate. She was recalled in 1990 to be the Head of Economic Sanctions in the UN Department of the FCO and in 1992, the Head of the South Africa Section of the Africa Department. Between 1994 and 1996, Hand was placed on a language training course, becoming proficient in Russian. In 1996, Hand was appointed the UK Ambassador to Belarus in Minsk. She stayed in the post until 1999, when she was recalled to be the Deputy Head of the Non-Proliferation Department at the FCO. Hand was posted to Holland in 2002, to work at NATO JFC Brunssum as the UK Political Adviser and two years later was assigned to the Moscow consulate as Consul General and Director of Operations. In 2008, she was posted to Istanbul as Consul General and the Director of Trade and Investment. Hand stayed there until 2012, when she was recalled to work on various assignments at the FCO, including the

Arms Trade Treaty The Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) is a multilateral treaty that regulates the international trade in conventional weapons. It entered into force on 24 December 2014. 113 states have ratified the treaty, and a further 28 states have signed but not ra ...

. From 2014 until her appointment in July 2017 as

UK Ambassador to Angola The Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Angola is the United Kingdom's foremost 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 also accre ...

, Hand worked as the Head of the Arms Export Policy Department. Hand succeeded John Dennis in March 2018 as the Ambassador to Angola and the non-resident Ambassador to

São Tomé and Príncipe São Tomé and Príncipe (; pt, São Tomé e Príncipe (); English: " Saint Thomas and Prince"), officially the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe ( pt, República Democrática de São Tomé e Príncipe), is a Portuguese-speaking i ...

. She presented her credentials to Angolan president

João Lourenço João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço (born 5 March 1954) is an Angolan politician, who has served as the president of Angola since 26 September 2017. Previously, he was Minister of Defence from 2014 to 2017. In September 2018, he became the Cha ...

on 28 June the same year.

Personal life

Hand married her husband, Robert in 1999. She can speak French, Russian, German and Portuguese.

Honours

Hand was granted an Honorary Fellowship by

Cardiff University , latin_name = , image_name = Shield of the University of Cardiff.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms of Cardiff University , motto = cy, Gwirionedd, Undod a Chytgord , mottoeng = Truth, Unity and Concord , established = 1 ...

in 1997.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hand, Jessica Mary Living people Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Belarus Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Angola Alumni of the University of Aberdeen Year of birth missing (living people) British women ambassadors