Kate White CMG
Biography
Kate White was Strategy Director at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) from 2024 to 2025. Kate was Director for Trade and Economic Security from February 2021 to April 2024 and interim Director General, Economics, Science and Technology from November 2023 to January 2024.
Kate was Director Asia Pacific from 2017 to 2021, advising on UK policy toward the region. Kate also held a number of head of department roles at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO), covering global economic issues, climate change, international science and innovation cooperation, and human resources. She was Joint Head of the cross-government International Energy Unit established by the FCO and Department for Energy and Climate Change in 2014.
Overseas, Kate has worked in Hong Kong as part of the Sino-British Joint Liaison Group (1998 to 2000), at the British Embassy in Jakarta (2007 to 2008), and on secondment to the British Trade and Cultural Office in Taipei (2000 to 2003).
Kate studied Mandarin Chinese in London and at Beijing Normal University as part of the FCO’s full-time language training programme between 1996 and 1998. She led the FCO’s work to re-establish a Language Centre in 2013, which supports British diplomats to strengthen language skills.
Kate has a degree in history from Cambridge University and was a Policy Fellow at Cambridge University’s Centre for Science and Policy from 2018 to 2020.
Previous roles in government
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Strategy Director
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Director General, Economics, Science and Technology
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Director, Asia Pacific