About David

I was born in 1952 in London and joined the Foreign Office in 1975 after reading English at Oxford University. I have spent most of my career since then dealing with Asia. After two years learning Japanese, I worked in the Economic Department of the British Embassy in Tokyo, at the time of the “second oil shock” in the late 1970s/early 1980s, returning in 1993 as the Head of the commercial team in the Embassy, helping British companies export to and invest in Japan.

I have also worked for long stretches in London, in the Foreign Office on International Trade Policy (1983-86), and in the Cabinet Office on International Science and Technology (1991-93). I have spent the last 10 years in London, firstly in charge of the Foreign Office department dealing with China (after the hand-over of Hong Kong), then helping to set up UK Trade and Investment, the government’s commercial promotion body, and finally 3 ½ years on the Foreign Office Board as the Human Resources Director.

I met my wife Pamela, who is a teacher, on my one posting that had nothing to do with Asia – in Nairobi, Kenya, where she was working in the 1980s and I worked in the British High Commission from 1987 to 1990. I came to Tokyo as Ambassador at the end of July 2008.