James Clark took up his appointment in Chicago in October 2007.

Born in Glasgow in 1963 and educated at the University of Edinburgh, James joined the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) in 1988. He came to Chicago from Luxembourg, where he was British Ambassador. As well as the leadership & strategic management of the Embassy, his responsibilities there included high-level lobbying, political & economic reporting, and investor development activity.

Also a professionally qualified coach, James additionally has a corporate headquarters role, working with the Foreign Office’s HR Directorate on spreading coaching good practice throughout the organisation (teaching coaching skills as part of a manager’s toolkit), and acting as a coaching and mentoring resource for the FCO’s growing cadre of trained coaches.  He is also an assessor at HR’s Assessment & Development Centres, assessing candidates for promotion to senior management.

James previously worked in London as Commercial Director of FCO Services and Head of its Conference & Visits Group leading a major programme of organisational change, helping to introduce commercial disciplines into public service delivery. Before that he was posted to the Embassy in Bonn, Germany, where he was head of its EU Section.

His earlier diplomatic career included periods as one of the Foreign Office’s press spokesmen; as Head of the Foreign Office’s Economic Summit Section, dealing with G8 Summits and Developed World Economy issues; and as Desk Officer for Ireland. He’s also worked on Central American and on Middle East issues. Other overseas postings include the UK’s Permanent Representation in Brussels (negotiating on EU external affairs issues), and Cairo (on Arabic language training).

James is accompanied by his partner Tony Stewart.