Her Majesty's Ambassador to Cuba Dianna Melrose joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1999. Cuba is her first overseas posting and she is the first woman to be UK ambassador in Havana.

Dianna was very keen to come to Cuba, which she first visited as a tourist in August 2004.   She loved the 'ambiente' and the music and was impressed by Cuba's disaster preparedness and response to hurricane Charlie, which struck during her visit. Her links with Latin America go back to her childhood, when she spent many happy school and university holidays in Peru, Argentina and Chile. Both her parents grew up in Latin America and she has a large Chilean family.    

Dianna has an MA in Latin American Studies (London University, 1974); first degree in Spanish and French from King's College London, and started her career as a Spanish interpreter in the City. One of her first freelance assignments in the 1970s was interpreting at the Anglo-Cuban trade talks. She worked for the British Council organising specialist visits to Latin America, before joining Oxfam in 1980.  She spent most of her career working for this NGO, whose mission is to promote social justice and a rights-based approach to international development.  Whilst at Oxfam, she wrote a number of books, including "Bitter Pills: Medicines and the Third World Poor" (1982) and helped build Oxfam's policy and international advocacy work (as part of the Oxfam International network).

She joined the FCO to take on a challenge function and propose new approaches to British foreign policy, working to ministers and the Permanent-Undersecretary, and was promoted to be head of the Policy Planning Staff in 2000.  Whilst in Policy Planners, she helped develop a new initiative (the Kimberley process - led by S.Africa) to end the illicit trade in diamonds which was fuelling wars in Africa. Because of this experience, she was seconded to the Department for International Development (DFID) in 2002 to set up work on Prime Minister Blair's Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (aimed at ensuring that the people of oil, gas and minerals-producing countries benefit from the revenues). She then worked on promoting fairer terms of trade for developing countries as head of DFID's International Trade Department.  From 2006 until February this year, she was leader of the EU Enlargement and Southeast Europe group in the FCO.

She has two sons. Tom (aged 20) is in his first year of politics and international relations at Sheffield University, and will spend his second at McGill in Montréal. Ben (aged 18) is planning to come to Cuba during his gap year travels, before studying history at university.

She was born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.  

Career History

 

 

2008	Her Majesty's Ambassador to Cuba
2006-08	Head, Enlargement & SE Europe Group, Europe Directorate, FCO
2003-06	Head, International Trade Department, Department for International Development (DFID)
2002	Head, Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, DfID
2000-02	Head of Policy Planning Staff, FCO
1999-2000	Deputy Head of Policy Planning Staff, FCO
1993-98	Policy Director, Oxfam GB
1992-3	Public Policy Director, Oxfam UK
1984-92	Head of Public Affairs Unit, Oxfam
1980-84	Policy Adviser, Oxfam
1978-9	Specialist Tours Officer (Latin America), British Council
1975-78	C.E. Heath & Co (Latin America) Ltd
1973-4	Noram Investment Services (Latin America Section)