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Mr.
Alexander Ellis
this week confirmed a return to London and that he would be ceasing
his duties as British Ambassador to Portugal, roughly six months ahead
of schedule.
Appointed Ambassador in September 2007, the
Embassy in Lisbon announced on Wednesday that Mr. Alexander Ellis would
be leaving for London shortly before Christmas after being appointed
Director of Strategy at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
In July, the British Ambassador told The Portugal News of the strong
possibility of exchanging Lisbon for London in the coming months.
“I think if I stay in the Foreign Office, it is likely that I will be
going back to London. I have been abroad for most of my career, and you
can’t get away with that forever”, Mr. Ellis said, but added: “It will
be a great wrench to leave Portugal.”
Mr. Ellis was previously posted to Portugal between 1992 and 1996.
Between 2005 and 2007 he was an adviser to the President of the European
Commission (Durao Barroso) on energy, climate change, competition,
development, trade and strategy.
Prior to that, he worked on EU and economic issues in Madrid in the
British Embassy; in London as head of the Foreign Office’s team for the
negotiations of the 2004 EU enlargement, as well as EU/Turkey relations;
in Brussels in the UK Representation to the EU working on the
negotiations to establish the euro, the seven year budget, then
institutional issues including the Treaty of Nice; and in Lisbon as a
junior member of the political team in the British Embassy.
He started his Foreign Office career as part of the team supporting the
transition to multi-party democracy in South Africa, following the
release of Nelson Mandela.
Before joining the Foreign Office, Alex Ellis had taught in the UK and
India. Alex Ellis is married to Maria Teresa Adegas and they have one
son.
As from the beginning of January, Mr. Ellis will be replaced in the
interim by Deputy Head of Mission Joanna Kuenssberg O’Sullivan until the
procedure of nominating a new ambassador has been concluded.
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