Matt is married to Caroline, a GP from South London specialising in pre-hospital care and tropical medicine. They have 3 small children. Matt has been working on Somalia since May 2010, when he was appointed the UK’s Senior Representative and Head of the UK’s Somalia Office. On 2 February 2012 he was accredited as the first British Ambassador to Somalia for 21 years. Since taking up his Somalia appointment, he has been able to travel to Mogadishu, Hargeisa and Garowe, and has been deeply touched by the warmth of the welcome he has received, but also the scale of the challenges that Somali people face every day.
Matt is a career civil servant and is currently on secondment to the Foreign Office from the UK Department for International Development. Now 37, he has spent much of his career to date dealing with conflict, security and humanitarian issues. Since 1999 he has worked in Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan and the Balkans, as well as a number of major relief operations and protracted emergencies. He also helped to set up and lead the UK’s Post Conflict Reconstruction Unit, now the UK Stabilisation Unit. Matt is a graduate of the UK Joint Services Command and Staff College’s Higher Command and Staff Course (2010) and was previously Principal Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for International Development (2008-9).
Away from work, Matt is an avid England rugby fan (although he refuses to admit his own playing days are long over). He is also a keen mountaineer and skier and, together with Caroline, was part of a team that raced to the Magnetic North Pole in 2005. These days he is more likely to be found teaching his children how to swim and build sandcastles.