Portugal NewsBritish Ambassador given top Foreign Office job27/11/2010
Mr. Alexander Ellis this week confirmed a return to London and that he would be ceasing his duties as British Ambassador to Portugal, roughly six months ahead of schedule.
Appointed Ambassador in September 2007, the Embassy in Lisbon announced on Wednesday that Mr. Alexander Ellis would be leaving for London shortly before Christmas after being appointed Director of Strategy at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
In July, the British Ambassador told The Portugal News of the strong possibility of exchanging Lisbon for London in the coming months.
“I think if I stay in the Foreign Office, it is likely that I will be going back to London. I have been abroad for most of my career, and you can’t get away with that forever”, Mr. Ellis said, but added: “It will be a great wrench to leave Portugal.”
Mr. Ellis was previously posted to Portugal between 1992 and 1996.
Between 2005 and 2007 he was an adviser to the President of the European Commission (Durão Barroso) on energy, climate change, competition, development, trade and strategy.
Prior to that, he worked on EU and economic issues in Madrid in the British Embassy; in London as head of the Foreign Office’s team for the negotiations of the 2004 EU enlargement, as well as EU/Turkey relations; in Brussels in the UK Representation to the EU working on the negotiations to establish the euro, the seven year budget, then institutional issues including the Treaty of Nice; and in Lisbon as a junior member of the political team in the British Embassy.
He started his Foreign Office career as part of the team supporting the transition to multi-party democracy in South Africa, following the release of Nelson Mandela.
Before joining the Foreign Office, Alex Ellis had taught in the UK and India. Alex Ellis is married to Maria Teresa Adegas and they have one son.
As from the beginning of January, Mr. Ellis will be replaced in the interim by Deputy Head of Mission Joanna Kuenssberg O’Sullivan until the procedure of nominating a new ambassador has been concluded.
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