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Andrew McAllister
Deputy Head of Mission
British Embassy in Kazakhstan
Speaker profile
Andrew joined the British Embassy in Astana in October 2017, taking up his sixth substantive overseas posting of his thirty year career as a member of Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service. Prior to this, he has served in a variety of overseas posts, interspersed with assignments in London at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. His overseas experience has been almost exclusively in Asia – with previous postings in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Korea, China and India – apart from a brief temporary assignment in Ghana. He has also travelled to other parts of the British diplomatic overseas network in his London-based roles.
Andrew has worked in variety of areas of work, including Corporate Policy, Corporate Services, Consular, Entry Clearance and Human Resources. His most recent overseas assignments, prior to Kazakhstan, focussed on Trade and Investment, including leading a large team of staff focussing on British trade with China’s leading commercial centre in Shanghai and surrounding provinces. More recently, from 2013 to 2017, he served as Britain’s first substantive Deputy High Commissioner to the Indian states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, where he led the development of closer ties between the UK and this fast-growing region. His corporate experience has included professional studies in procurement and use of psychometric instruments and mediation in managing teams.
He is married with one daughter. His interests include a passion for contemporary music, cinema (particularly independent film) and the natural world. He also enjoys engaging with new people and exploring new cultures, particularly food culture.