Saturday, 6th September 2025

….From 2020 to 2025 Dame Karen Pierce was HM Ambassador to the United States, the first woman to hold the post and the first woman to reach 4 star level in the Diplomatic Service.

From 2018 Dame Pierce was the UK’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, also the first women to hold that post. Prior to these roles, Dame Pierce served as the Chief Operating Officer and then Political Director of the then FCO in London. She has also held the posts of British Ambassador to Afghanistan from 2015 to 2016, the UK Permanent Representative to the UN and WTO in Geneva from 2012 to 2015, and Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN in New York from 2005 to 2009.

Her London-based roles at the then FCO have included the following: Policy Director for South Asia and the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan; Balkans Co-Ordinator; Deputy Head of News Department; and Head of Newsroom. Her early work covered Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova as well as the Balkans and EU work.

Dame Karen Pierce DCMG is currently the UK’s Special Envoy for the Western Balkans, based in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in London. She is currently a (pro bono) member of the Board of Trustees of the National Theatre and a Governor of Ditchley. She sits on the North America Committee of Chatham House.

Dame Karen is married to Sir Charles Roxburgh KCB, currently Chairman of Lloyd’s of London and they have two sons.