Events > Europe South Consular Conference 2023

Europe South Consular Conference 2023

	Alexis Aguilera DHSC Regional Operations Manager Department of Health and Social Care Alexis leads DHSC's Europe Team which is based in two locations in Spain: Madrid and Alicante. They cover healthcare access across Europe. They can advise on policy, operations and comms. They work closely with FCDO Consular, Prevention and Citizens Rights leads. Previous to joining the Embassy in Madrid, Alexis worked on a European Commission project that looked at the detection of women and victims of trafficking in sex work.

	Paul Bute Head of Consular Services Department FCDO Paul is a career diplomat, having joined in 1994 he has worked in various roles both overseas (India, Nepal and Thailand) and in London where he has worked on counter terrorism issues and for the Directorate for Strategy & Innovation.

	Laura Caffrey Network Coordinator, EuroAsia & Europe South FCDO Based in The Hague, Laura is the network coordinator for both EuroAsia and Europe South consular networks. Her role largely focuses on organising events and arranging logistics for conferences, workshops, meetings and training sessions across the networks. Prior to this, she worked as a consular officer in Amsterdam for 4 years and was involved in a number of consular crisis response deployments.

	Peter Clements Deputy Head of Strategy & Network Dept. Peter came to the FCDO on loan in 2011 as Deputy Head of Falklands and Southern Oceans Department. After being transferred permanently, he worked in the Diplomatic Academy Team as Head of Operations and Outreach. He has previously held the role of DHM in Zagreb and Lima before his current role as Deputy Head of SND

	Steve Davenport Specialist consular social work advisor for older people & dementia cases Steve is a qualified Social Worker with over 5 years' experience in local authority adult social work. He works within the Specialist Social Work Adviser Team and gives advice to GCT, CCT &; posts on cases which involve older people and dementia.

	Tristan Gilchrist Deputy High Commissioner to the Republic of Malta Tristan Gilchrist has been the Deputy High Commissioner at the British High Commission in Valletta since October 2021. Before coming to Malta, Tristan was Head of the Whitehall Nigeria Unit, based in London. Previous postings overseas include as HM Consul to Brazil and Consular Regional Operations Manager covering Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

	Chris Heywood Consular Social Work advisor for Mental health Chris is a qualified and registered social worker in England and alongside his FCDO role, he continues to practise as an Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) for a local authority in England. His role entails providing independent advice to consular staff on cases where there are concerns that mental health may be a complicating factor.

	Sara Jones Head of strategic customer insight Sara heads up the Customer Insight team – the team is responsible for proactively going out and collecting feedback from service users, staff and stakeholders and reporting that back within Consular to help us maintain, change or improve our services. Sara has been in Consular at the FCDO since 2013, and she started up the Customer Insight team; before that we didn’t have any formal processes for collecting feedback from those we help. Sara's background is in research and insight; she started work in a small research agency and progressed from there. Prior to working at the FCDO, Sara worked in a variety of roles/ organisations including the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Central Office of Information (COI), the Department for Education and His Majesty’s Passport Office.

	Sneha Khemlani ETD Centre Consular Officer Since September 2020, Sneha has been the workflow manager at the ETD Centre in Madrid. She is the main point of contact for the team and network when it comes to questions, queries and escalations. She constantly checks the "queues" ensuring that applications are being processed. Sneha's journey with the network started at the contact centre but prior to that, she was an Event Manager for luxury hospitality brands. Her role requires: organisation, multi tasking, problem solving and ability to work under pressure.

	Sara Lozano Network coordinator, L&D Lead EAN & ESN FCDO Based in Madrid, Sara is the network coordinator for EuroAsia and Europe South covering Learning & Development and internal communications. Sara joined the FCDO back in 2007 in what was the first network team around the world, she's been working in L&D since 2013

	Samantha Pullen Country Casework Manager for Europe South and Russia Sam joined CCT in August 2023 after having worked for the DWP for 2 years. In her current role, she provides consular assistance to British Nationals overseas; liaising with post and other internal departments to help resolve issues or signpost to relevant partner organisations of the FCDO

	Lori Ramos Consular Network Coordinator Lori is based in Bilbao, Spain and her role focuses on leading the Staff Engagement Group, creating Heads of Mission reports for CRDs, tracking stats and trends, oversight of devolved CRD Budgets, and developments of CRD Priorities. Prior to this, Lori was the Finance Coordinator for EAN and ESN and before that she was a Consular Officer based in Palma, Spain. Lori also worked in homelessness and tackling poverty for a Local Government in the UK.

	Iain Reilly Head of DHSC complex case management team Iain leads DHSC’s Complex Case Management Team (CCMT) and is the operational policy lead on several areas of reciprocal healthcare including EHIC/GHIC, S1 and Fraud and Error. DHSC’s reciprocal healthcare team is responsible for negotiating and operationalising the agreements the UK has with countries worldwide to provide healthcare to UK-insured people. CCMT sits within this team and deals with complex cases and implementation issues which arise from agreements. Our most complex arrangements are with Europe, so we work closely with other social security coordination departments and international partners on these. Prior to working in reciprocal healthcare, Iain worked for DHSC’s Parliamentary Intelligence Team and in VAT compliance for HMRC.

	Richard Ruddenklau Regional Prevention Support Officer FCDO Based in Barcelona, Richard assists the Regional Prevention Advisor (Alison Tharby). Previous to this role, Richard was a Consular officer in Barcelona

	Alison Tharby Regional Prevention Advisor FCDO Based in Alicante, Alison works as part of the EuroAsia and Europe South Network Team and the Global Prevention Network. She supports colleagues across EAN and ESN to deliver on the prevention strand of the consular strategy. She is passionate about prevention and how a behaviour change mindset can help teams make a real difference.

	Katherine (Cathy) Ward LVO OBE British High Commissioner to the Republic of Malta Katherine (Cathy) Ward LVO OBE was appointed British High Commissioner to the Republic of Malta in October 2020. Previously she was Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the Republic of Ecuador from 2017 to 2020

	Amanda Watson Team Manager, Consular Contact Centre Amanda joined the Contact Centre in 2016, based in Malaga. Along with her Team Manager colleagues they support the 24/7 365 operation, providing first class, first contact for all forms of enquiry across the consular network, calls, email, social media, MP hotline as well as supporting UK consular assistance teams. Before joining the FCDO Amanda’s background was Tour Operation management based around the globe.

	Fleur Willson Consular Regional Director, Europe South Network FCDO Fleur took on the role of CRD to Europe South in July 2021, prior to this she has had many other roles during her 12+ years of service in the FCDO including Deputy head of mission in Tripoli, team leader at the Global response centre (GRC) and consular crisis coordinator in Paris.

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