Karen Pierce


Dame Karen Elizabeth Pierce, is a British diplomat who is currently British Ambassador to the United States at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and previously the Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations.

Education

Pierce was educated at Penwortham Girls' High School in Lancashire and Girton College, Cambridge. In 2012 she gained an MSc degree in International Strategy and Diplomacy from the London School of Economics.

Career

Pierce joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1981. After a period of training in Japanese, she was posted to Tokyo as a Third Secretary in 1984. In 1987, she returned to London and joined the Security Policy Department of the FCO. From 1992 to 1995, she was based in Washington, D.C., as Private Secretary to the Ambassador. She held various positions at the FCO between 1996 and 2000: Team Leader for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova, Deputy Head Eastern Adriatic Department, and Head of the FCO Newsroom.
From 2006 to 2009 Pierce was the UK's Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York. In this capacity, she acted as the President of the UN Security Council in April 2007 and in May 2008. From 2009 to 2012 she was Director, South Asia and Afghanistan at the FCO, acting as the UK Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan June 2010 – June 2011.
From 2012 to 2015 Pierce was the Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations in Geneva, and also to other international organisations in Geneva including the World Trade Organization. From May 2015 to February 2016 she was the United Kingdom's Ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Until early 2018, she served as the FCO's Director General Political.
Pierce was appointed as the UK's Permanent Representative to the UN in March 2018, the first woman to take on this role. During her time in office, Britain coordinated the Council's activities on Myanmar.
She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 2018 Birthday Honours.
In October 2019, she delivered a joint international statement on Xinjiang at the United Nations General Assembly’s Third Committee on behalf of 23 countries. The countries said they shared concerns raised by the United Nations International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination regarding “credible reports of mass detention; efforts to restrict cultural and religious practices; mass surveillance disproportionately targeting ethnic Uyghurs; and other human rights violations and abuses.” They called on China to comply with its national and international obligations to respect human rights, including freedom of religion, and allow UN human rights monitors access to detention centers.
On 7 February 2020, she was named as the new ambassador of the United Kingdom to the United States and became the first woman in the post, replacing Lord Darroch of Kew.

Personal life

Pierce is married to Charles Roxburgh, a senior civil servant at HM Treasury. Together they have two sons, born 1991 and 1997.