Events > Europe South Consular Conference 2024

Europe South Consular Conference 2024

	Lisa Bandari His Majesty's Ambassador to Portugal & Cape Verde FCDO Lisa Bandari was appointed as His Majesty’s Ambassador to Portugal and Cape Verde in January 2024. Previously, she was the Deputy Director for India and HMG India Coordinator from August 2021 to August 2022. Lisa has served in a number of political and policy roles since joining the UK Diplomatic Service in 2004. She brings experience from several Foreign Office departments as well as overseas postings in Afghanistan and Kenya. Prior to joining the FCO, she worked for an NGO and UK local government.

	Sarah Taylor Director Consular & Crisis FCDO Sarah was appointed her current role as the head of Consular and Crisis in July 2024. Prior to this, Sarah led the FCDO’s Office for Conflict, Stabilisation and Mediation. She also worked on the UK government’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Sarah has served as Europe Director, responsible for the UK’s bilateral relationships across Europe and overseeing the FCDO’s European network of diplomatic missions. Before that, Sarah was responsible for overseeing continuity of international agreements as the UK left the EU.

	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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	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.

	Annika Dann Consular Social Work Advisor (Child welfare & safeguarding) FCDO Annika is one of four specialist social work advisers to the FCDO, and her specialism is child welfare and safeguarding. She previously spent four years as Pro Consul in Quito, Ecuador before returning to the UK to train as a social worker. Annika then worked in a frontline child protection social work team in London, before returning to the FCDO in her current role in May 2023.

	Simona Demuro Consular Regional Manager Portugal FCDO Simona has been the CROM for Portugal since 2012 when we had a restructure across ESN and in 2016 Cabo Verde was added on. Prior to that, she was the Consul for all of Portugal except the Algarve which had its own Consul. Simona started out as a teacher and worked in Italy and Poland. After returning to the UK, she was lucky to be offered a job in Lisbon! She considers herself lucky because Portugal is a beautiful country, and she hopes you will have a chance to enjoy while here.

	Charlotte Forbes Joint country casework team leader - Europe FCDO Charlotte Forbes joined the Consular Assistance Department in May 2022 and is currently joint Team Leader for the Europe Consular Casework Team (CCT). Charlotte joined the FCDO in 2018, and prior to joining Consular was a Desk Officer in the Overseas Territories and Human Resources Directorates.

	Lucy Gorman Consular Regional Manager Spain FCDO

	Hendrik Harms Consular Officer, Consular Contact Centre FCDO Hendrik has been working for the FCDO and the Consular Contact Centre since 2015. He started as consular assistant, then became an A2 Shift Leader in the Contact Centre Out of Hours team, filtering calls for GRC 24/7. Since the restructuration of the Contact centre (during the pandemic) he is now an AO Consular Officer. Hendrik has always worked frontline in various roles. Last year, along with other CCC colleagues, he covered GCT casework full time for almost 6months. Before joining the FCDO Hendrik worked in customer service roles in the private industry in Germany and Luxembourg.

	Stephen Hilton Head of Global Response Centre FCDO Steve joined the Consular Assistance Department in 2022, as Head of the Global Response Centre (GRC), from the Overseas Territories and Polar Department (OTPD) where he was Deputy Commissioner and Head of Policy for the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). Prior to joining OTPD, Steve was Head of the FCO’s Maritime Security Team, on secondment from the Department for Transport (DfT). At DfT Steve primarily worked in maritime counter terrorism roles. Prior to DfT Steve was a Specialist Investigator at HM Customs and an officer in the London Resilience Team formed to test the preparedness of the Capital for a 9/11 - type catastrophic incident. Before joining HM Government Steve worked in the Former Soviet Union (6 years) and the UAE (2 years) for trading and tobacco companies and then as a Logistics Specialist in the UK.

	Joseph Horbacki Deputy Team Lead Global Response Centre FCDO Joseph has been in the FCDO since 2002, his first overseas role was Consular Attaché in Islamabad covering FVP passport applications and forced marriage. Joseph re-joined Consular in 2010 as a CCT caseworker covering casework for most of Europe including, France, Cyprus, Greece and Turkey. He was also a WDO in GRC covering calls on cases from around the world including the Iberian Peninsula. He was then a Duty Officer in GRC; Vice Consul Bangkok/ APAC network; and then Vice Consul in Beijing. Joseph returned to UK in July 2023 to be a Duty Officer in GRC again and has been Deputy Team leader In GRC since July 2024.

	Eilidh MacDonald Diplomatic Engagement UK-EU FCDO I joined the EU Strategic Communications and Engagement team just over a year ago and focus primarily on diplomatic engagement across the UK-EU portfolio, working with policy teams across Whitehall to develop and deliver on engagement plans and the UK-EU core script as well as supporting media communications. I previously worked as a secondary English teacher in Yorkshire and London.

	Joyce McDougall Consular Regional Manager Italy & Malta FCDO Joyce joined the BCG Milan in 2011 as Consul for North Italy. In 2013, she moved to Rome to take up the CROM role for Italy and Malta. Prior to that, Joyce had a long career in tour operations as a regional operations manager. She has been fortunate to work in many amazing countries allowing her to enjoy incredible experiences , thankfully without the need for Consular support!

	Melissa McNichol-Antwine Head of Consular Child Policy Unit FCDO Melissa joined the Consular Assistance Department in November 2023 and is currently Head of the Child Policy Unit (CPU). Melissa joined the FCDO in 2021 as a Diplomatic & Development Fast Streamer and initially worked in the Humanitarian Response Group as a Policy & Programme Manager. Prior to joining Consular she was Assistant Private Secretary to the Minister for the Indo-Pacific, where she covered Ministerial work on Southeast Asia and Technology & Analysis.

	Louise Nicholls Diplomatic Engagement Lead FCDO I’ve been the Diplomatic Engagement Lead in EU Directorate since May 2023 covering many UK-EU priorities with our posts across Europe and Diplomats in London. I’ve spent over 6 years in the Civil Service in various departments working with stakeholders on Brexit, Covid and some legislation and sponsorship work on the UK’s data position. Prior to the Civil Service I worked in the private sector including some time in a travel company operating across 3 continents utilising plane, train and cruise travel.

	Andra Punga Regional Crisis Advisor Europe South FCDO Andra Punga is the Regional Crisis Adviser for Europe South. Before she joined the Crisis Management Department, she worked in the Political Section of BE Bucharest, where she is currently based. She is responsible for CMD-led crisis exercises across the region and works closely with posts to monitor risks and evaluate preparedness. She ensures that teams are well-equipped to respond to any scenario by running training sessions for different roles. She is excited to meet you and discuss areas of convergence, especially on fostering crisis resilience for consular teams.

	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

	Miriam Shearman Consular Regional Director EuroAsia FCDO Before becoming CRD for EuroAsia, Miriam was Ambassador and DPR to the United Nations and other international organisations in Geneva. She has also worked as Director of Corporate Services for UKMIS and BCG New York and in other FCDO roles focused mainly on the European Union, Commonwealth, Japan and the Middle East

	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.