Consul-General Dame Barbara Hay

Most recently, Barbara was British Consul-General in Istanbul, where she arrived in early 2004 to lead the rebuilding of the Post following the tragic terrorist attack in November 2003 in which 12 colleagues were killed and scores injured. From her base in Istanbul, Turkey’s business and commercial centre, she was also Director of UK Trade and Investment across Turkey, working with the commercial teams in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir to help British business take advantage of the opportunities Turkey offers as an emerging market.  

Since joining the Diplomatic Service in 1971, Barbara has spent much of her overseas career in the former Soviet Union, serving there five times in all - and in every decade since her first tour of duty in Moscow in the mid-1970s. These included opening single-handedly a new British Consulate-General in St Petersburg immediately after the August 1991 coup and her appointment as British Ambassador in Uzbekistan and, concurrently, Tajikistan from 1995-99. Barbara has also worked in South Africa and Canada as well as in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London.

All Barbara’s Posts have attracted a wide range of visitors, including members of the Royal Family, Lord Mayors of London, Ministers, parliamentarians, senior businessmen, cultural figures, academics etc. She expects - and is much looking forward to - a similar pattern and pace in Los Angeles to enable her and her new team create, enhance and multiply the multifarious connections which the UK enjoys with southern California and the other states to which she is accredited.