Vijay Rangarajan

Biography

Vijay Rangarajan was a Director General at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office from 2020 to 2024. His role initially focused on the Americas and Overseas Territories, and later on the Indo-Pacific, Middle East and North Africa.

Vijay was previously British Ambassador to Brazil from May 2017 to August 2020. Prior to that, he was Europe Director, responsible for work on the UK EU referendum, associated negotiations, and wider EU policy such as on energy, social security and foreign policy.

Before that, he worked in the Ministry of Justice and Cabinet Office on political and constitutional reform of the UK: running elections, Parliament and the development of devolution in the UK. This involved establishing the UK Supreme Court and Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, and the reform of electoral registration. He then set up the FCO’s Multilateral Policy Directorate, responsible for the UN, Council of Europe, Commonwealth, OSCE, and work on international human rights and conflict issues. He also negotiated major changes to the European Convention on Human Rights.

Earlier, he worked in the UK Representation in Brussels on trade policy and political affairs, later leading the Justice and Home Affairs section, covering immigration, asylum, data sharing, counter-terrorism, civil and criminal law. Vijay was Deputy Ambassador at the British Embassy in Mexico from 2003 to 2006.

Vijay’s academic background is scientific: a natural sciences degree, Masters in maths, and astrophysics PhD at Selwyn College, Cambridge.