John Mitchell MBE

Biography

Born in Essex, John Mitchell joined the UK Diplomatic Service in 1996 having previously served in the British Army. Before his first posting overseas as Third Secretary at the British Embassy Skopje (2000 to 2003), John worked at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in London as an Assistant Desk Officer in the Latin America Department and as a Desk Officer in the Human Rights Policy Department.

After serving in what is now Northern Macedonia, John was posted to the British Embassy Phnom Penh as Second Secretary (Political and Projects) (2003 to 2006) covering internal political, and drugs and crime assistance work. On completion of his posting to the Kingdom of Cambodia, John returned to London for pre-posting training before taking up the role of Deputy Head of Mission and Her Majesty’s Consul (2008 to 2012) at the British Embassy Chisinau.

Following his posting to the Republic of Moldova he returned to the FCO and joined the Middle East and North Africa Directorate where he worked as part of the Yemen Team (2012 to 2013). In 2013 he was posted to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq as Deputy Consul-General (2013 to 2015) at the British Consulate General in Erbil.

He then returned to the FCO and joined the Eastern Europe and Central Asia Directorate as Deputy Head of the Eastern Partnership Team (2016 to 2018) before taking up his current role as the Head of the Eastern Europe and Central Asia Directorate Roamer Team. Since taking up this role he has served on Temporary Duty deployments to Minsk, Kyiv, Ekaterinburg and now Tashkent.

Married in 2003 to Marina Petrovic-Mitchell, John’s hobbies include 20th century military and political history, cinema and watching (his playing days now long over) rugby.