Matthew Rycroft CBE becomes the British Permanent Representative to the United Nations on 25 April 2015.

From March 2011, Matthew was the FCO’s Chief Operating Officer. In that role he oversaw the running of the FCO and its network of 270 posts around the world, including all the Human Resources, Finance, Estates, Security, Information Technology, Protocol, Procurement and Corporate Services. He deputised for the Permanent Under Secretary in his absence.

Matthew was born on 16 June 1968, and brought up in Southampton and Cambridge. He has a degree in maths and philosophy from Merton College, Oxford.

Matthew joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1989. After a few months at the UN in Geneva and then on the NATO desk in London, he spent four years in the British Embassy in Paris.

In 1995-96 Matthew was head of the political section of Eastern Adriatic Department in the FCO. In this role he was a member of the British delegation to the Dayton peace talks on Bosnia.

After two years in the FCO’s Policy Planning Staff covering European and trans-Atlantic issues and brief secondments to the US State Department and US Congress, Matthew joined the British Embassy in Washington, following US domestic politics from 1998 to 2002.

From 2002 to 2004, Matthew was Private Secretary to the Prime Minister for Foreign Affairs, covering all foreign, European, Northern Ireland and defence issues in No10. He received a CBE for this work.

He was British Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2005 and theFCO Europe Director from 2008.

Matthew is married to Alison. They have three daughters, born in 1998, 2000 and 2005. Matthew speaks French and Bosnian, plays the double bass, and enjoys soccer and other sports.

Contact Information

United Kingdom Mission to the United Nations
One Dag Hammarskjold Plaza
885 2nd Ave.
New York, NY 10017

Phone: (212) 745 9200 

Website: http://ukun.fco.gov.uk/en/