Catherine Nettleton is a former British diplomat, who has worked in leadership roles in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in London and in the UK’s overseas diplomatic network.
Her roles in London have focussed on multilateral matters, including European Union policy, coordination of the UK’s role in the G7, and United Nations including security issues. She led a large team working on the delivery of the UK Presidencies of the G7 and EU in 2005, was Director of Protocol in 2015, and was Director COVID-19 in 2021-2022.
Overseas, she has specialised in the Far East and Latin America. Early in her career, she studied Mandarin, and her first overseas posting was as Vice Consul in Beijing. She returned to Beijing as Counsellor (Political/Economic) in 2000-2003.
She was posted to Mexico in the 1990s, and was later Ambassador in Peru (2006-2010) and Venezuela (2010-2014). Her last posting overseas was Taiwan, as the UK’s Representative (2016-2020).
She is a Senior Associate Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute, the UK defence and security think tank.