Julian King (diplomat)

Sir Julian Beresford King KCVO CMG (born 22 August 1964) is a British diplomat and civil servant who has been Ambassador to Ireland, Director General of the Northern Ireland Office and (from January 2016) Ambassador to France.

Early life and education

King was born in the West Midlands and went to the local grammar school, Bishop Vesey's Grammar School in Sutton Coldfield. He then gained a BA in Philosophy and Theology from St Peter's College, Oxford. He also studied at the École nationale d'administration in Paris where he met his future wife. He joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1985.

Diplomatic Career

• 1985–1987 Foreign office in London
• 1987–1988 École nationale d'administration
• 1989–1990 Private Secretary to the British Ambassador (Sir Ewen Fergusson) in Paris
• 1991–1992 worked on European Common Foreign Security Policy in; Luxembourg, the Hague, Lisbon then London
• 1993–1995 London, working on European Defence and NATO issues
• 1998–2002 Brussels, working on relations with Turkey, European Defence, CFSP and EU enlargement
• 2003–2004 Counsellor and Head of Chancery at UK mission to the UN in New York (covering UN Security Council business in the period after the Iraq War)
• 2004–2007 UK Permanent Representative to the EU Political and Security Committee in Brussels, covering Common Foreign and Security Policy, CFSP.
• 2005 Chaired the EU Political and Security Committee during the UK presidency
• 2008–2009 Head of the office of the British Commissioner in Brussels (Peter Mandelson then Baroness Ashton). Represented the EU27 on international trade matters, including negotiations on the WTO Doha Round.
• 2009–2011 British Ambassador to Ireland
• 2011–2014 Director General of the Northern Ireland Office
• 2014–2015 Director-General Economic & Consular Affairs, Foreign and Commonwealth Office
• 2016–present British Ambassador to France

Honours

King was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in 2006. He was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO) by Queen Elizabeth during a visit to Belfast on 24 June 2014, when he relinquished his appointment as Director General of the Northern Ireland Office.^[1]

Personal life

He married Lotte Knudsen in 1992 in south-west France. They met in Paris and still have a house near where they married. Lotte Knudsen worked in the European Commission as Director for Justice Matters in Directorate-General for Justice, Freedom and Security. They have two dogs, Molly and Cadbury. Cadbury was adopted from the Dogs Trust, an international dog charity with a re-homing centre in Dublin.

References

1. Court Circular, 24 June 2014

External links

• Profile, IrishTimes.com
• The Dogs Trust website, dogstrust.ie
• Sir Julian King KCVO CMG, gov.uk