Hugh Elliott joined the Diplomatic Service in 1989. He is currently Ambassador-Designate to Spain and Andorra since August 2019.

Hugh joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1989. A specialist in the EU and the Hispanic world, he has served in a variety of roles in London and at British Embassies overseas.

He first worked at the British Embassy in Madrid from 1991 to 1996, covering EU and economic issues. He then served from 1999 to 2002 in Buenos Aires, working on economic and political issues, and from 2002 to 2006 in Paris, working on global issues and strategic threats. From 2006 to 2013, he worked at Anglo American plc, a diversified global mining company, where he was global Head of Government Relations, and where he worked extensively in Latin America, among other regions. He returned to the FCO in 2013 to take up the position of Director of Communication, responsible for the FCO’s internal and external communication and public diplomacy work. From 2017 he served as Director for Europe, then Director for International Agreements in the FCO and until this year as Director of Communications and Stakeholders at the Department for Exiting the European Union.

Hugh has served in a voluntary capacity as a Trustee of the British Spanish Society and as a Trustee, then Chairman of Canning House, the UK´s centre for Latin America and Iberia.

Hugh read Modern and Medieval Languages at Trinity College, Cambridge. He is married to Toni. They have two children, Edward (1993) and Alba (1995).