Thomas Drew (diplomat)

Thomas Drew CMG (born 26 September 1970) is a senior British diplomat who was most recently British High Commissioner to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan from February 2016 to November 2019.[1]

Career

Drew attended Charterhouse and then Trinity College, Oxford where he read Classics, graduating in 1993. He worked for McKinsey & Company for two-years before joining the Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service in 1995. After one two-year posting, he spent one year on full-time Russian language training before being posted to the British Embassy, Moscow in 1998 as a Second (later First) Secretary to lead the mission's economics team.[2]

In 2002, Drew returned to London to head a unit running the UK's engagement with the EU inter-governmental conference that would eventually lead to the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe. Once the conference concluded in 2004, Drew continued in the EU Enlargement and South East Group until 2006, after which he was posted as the Political Counsellor to the British High Commission, Islamabad.

In 2008, Drew was loaned to the Home Office to be the Director of the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism for three years. Drew returned to the Foreign Office in 2011 as Director of National Security, before becoming Principal Private Secretary to the Foreign Secretary in 2012. In 2014 he left this post,[2] and in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 2015 he was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) "for services to British foreign policy interests."[3]

During 2015 he was a Visiting Fellow at the McKinsey Global Institute.[4] He was appointed High Commissioner to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, presenting his credentials of office in February 2016.[5]

Positions

Diplomatic posts
Preceded by Peter Wilson	Counsellor, Political, British Embassy Islamabad 2006–2008	Succeeded by Christopher Sainty
Preceded by Unknown	Director, Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism, Home Office 2008–2011	Succeeded by Unknown
Preceded by Tim Dowse	Director, Intelligence and National Security, Foreign and Commonwealth Office 2011–2013	Succeeded by Laurie Bristow
Preceded by Lindsay Croisdale-Appleby	Principal Private Secretary to the Foreign Secretary 2012–2014	Succeeded by Martin Reynolds
Preceded by Philip Barton	High Commissioner to Pakistan 2016–present	Incumbent

References

1. "Thomas Drew CMG". GOV.UK. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
2. "Drew, Thomas". Who's Who. ukwhoswho.com. 2013 (2013 online ed.). A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc. Retrieved 21 August 2013. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
3. "No. 61256". The London Gazette (Supplement). 12 June 2015. p. B4.
4. "Thomas Drew CMG, British High Commissioner to Pakistan". gov.uk.
5. "Change of British High Commissioner". British High Commission Islamabad. 11 February 2016.