Matthew Rycroft CBE has been the Permanent Secretary at the Department for International Development since 22 January 2018. Matthew was previously the British Permanent Representative to the United Nations from April 2015 to January 2018. From March 2011, Matthew was the FCO’s Chief Operating Officer. In 1995-96 Matthew was head of the political section of Eastern Adriatic Department in the FCO. In this role he was a member of the British delegation to the Dayton peace talks on Bosnia. After two years in the FCO’s Policy Planning Staff covering European and trans-Atlantic issues and brief secondments to the US State Department and US Congress, Matthew joined the British Embassy in Washington, following US domestic politics from 1998 to 2002. From 2002 to 2004, Matthew was Private Secretary to the Prime Minister for Foreign Affairs, covering all foreign, European, Northern Ireland and defense issues in No10. He received a CBE for this work. He was British Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2005 and the FCO Europe Director from 2008.
