india

Updated: Jun 07, 2019 01:45 IST

Kumar Iyer, who served as Britain’s deputy high commissioner in Mumbai and in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit during Gordon Brown’s tenure, has been appointed chief economist of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).

London-born Iyer, who grew up in India and the UK, has become the first member of the ethnic minority communities to join the FCO management board, an official statement said on Thursday.

As the chief economist, he will lead FCO’s Economics Unit which provides in-house economic analysis input into foreign policy formulation, and also develops economics capability within the FCO through the Economics and Prosperity Faculty of the Diplomatic Academy.

Iyer said: “I think living abroad during my early childhood gave me a sense of the world as a bigger place and I developed an interest in international issues that has always stayed with me. The role is a real privilege and marries my love of economics with my interest in global diplomacy”.

Simon McDonald, FCO’s permanent under-secretary, said: “We are glad to appoint Kumar as chief economist. He brings insight of global economics and international finance, and experience of working on economic diplomacy and prosperity abroad”.

Besides roles in the public and private sector, since 2017 has been working part-time as a visiting academic at Hertford College, Oxford.