Catriona Laing (MSc Economics 1985) is British High Commissioner to Nigeria. She became Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Zimbabwe in September 2014. Prior to that she was posted to Afghanistan for 18 months as Head of Mission for the Helmand Provincial Reconstruction Team. 

Previous postings have included Kenya and Sudan (with the Department for International Development), Somalia (with the UN), and Alternate Director of the European Investment Bank. In the UK she spent five years working for Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Strategy Unit and three years as the International Director of the Ministry of Justice. Catriona is on the LSE public sector alumni network steering committee and leads their international work.

You are the British Ambassador to the Republic of Zimbabwe. How did you prepare for the role?

There are some courses that are compulsory – security, finance and crisis management – and many which are optional depending on your particular assignment and your training needs. For example many people do economics courses but I did not need to do this having an economics professional background. But I did need some training in consular work as I had not done this before. 

As a new Head of Mission there is a leadership course tailored to the particular challenges you will face, which includes learning how to handle media briefings, preparing your opening address to staff, and planning your first 100 days. You are also offered some time with a coach who supports you in your early days. Obviously, I also spent time learning about Zimbabwe – reading and talking to academics and business people with operations in the country. Normal preparation time for a role is around two months.

Because of the timing of postings I had a year in between finishing in Helmand, Afghanistan, and taking up my ambassador role. Helmand itself prepared me well as I was leading a diverse team of 220 people in a very high pressure environment. My job was two-fold: to lock in the gains from the lengthy NATO mission, and to start the process of handover to Afghan local government as we were approaching the end of our mission. I lived on a military base and travelled only in helicopters and armoured vehicles. I had two body guards – one of whom was always with me.

After Helmand and a bit of leave I spent three months leading a project to identify the lessons from the integrated civilian/military operation in Helmand. In between jobs in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, staff join the corporate pool and await an assignment. Mine was certainly a challenge. I was thrown into the Russia/Ukraine crisis – spending five weeks as one of three people who led the crisis at the London end working shifts in our crisis centre, and then two months working in our Embassy in Moscow as an additional Deputy Head of Mission supporting our Ambassador in running it from the Moscow end. That was tough but my Helmand experience prepared me well for working in a crisis situation – even on a part of the world that was new to me. The best thing about this experience was that I was able to see one of our top ambassadors –  Tim Barrow –  in action running a large mission during a time of crisis.

My top tip for ambassadors in training is to work alongside another – that is the best preparation there is. After leaving Moscow in April I was hoping for a bit of down time as I was getting married in mid-June. Instead I was persuaded to take on one final assignment running a project in our Communications Directorate. Although this was hard as I juggled my wedding planning I learnt how the Communications function works and this has proved invaluable in my role here in Harare.

What have been the main challenges of your job so far?

The main purpose of an ambassador’s role is to build strong relationships between the host country and the UK. The UK’s relationship with Zimbabwe is long and complex and has had its fair share of ups and downs. Zimbabwe is a country of interest in the UK – it is the only African country included in the Conservative Party’s manifesto. The main challenge for me is to keep focused on our long-term goal of “Safeguarding UK interests through building a prosperous, peaceful and democratic Zimbabwe” whilst navigating through the numerous hurdles along the way which can knock things off course. 

At the heart of being a good diplomat is engagement and trust.  I need to have a sufficiently broad and robust relationship with the government of Zimbabwe, but one based on mutual respect. This enables us to have clear and productive relationships even when we disagree. On a more day to day basis it is challenging to balance the demands on my time.

I have to ensure I engage with government ministers and leaders of the various opposition parties and work with my fellow ambassadors from the European Union, Africa, US, Canada, Australia and Asia. The more the international community speaks with one voice the more effective we can be. There are still a large number of elderly and vulnerable British nationals or dual nationals here in Zimbabwe and I also need to ensure that they are supported. I also do a lot with women’s groups and young people, and a range of fascinating Zimbabweans from all walks of life including the arts and science. It is important to not get too Harare centric so I also try to get out into the Provinces as much as I can. As there are a lot of evening functions it is hard to juggle my time and ensure I have a bit of down time to spend with family and friends.

What led you to study at LSE?

I have always wanted to work in development – and in particular Africa – and was advised that the best route into this would be to study economics. I chose LSE as clearly the best place to study economics! After completing my studies I applied for a fellowship with the Overseas Development Institute and was posted to Botswana as an economist in the Ministry of Works Transport and Communications. I then joined the UK government through the Government Economics Service. My economics grounding has been invaluable for a career in public service. I have had a varied career working in DFID, Cabinet Office, Ministry of Justice, UN and now FCO. 

What are your fondest LSE memories?

Without doubt, the study group we established. My MSc year included some real high flyers and in our study group was Sir Jeremy Heywood (now UK Cabinet Secretary), Minouche Shafik (now Deputy Governor of the Bank of England), Philip Barton (now High Commissioner to Pakistan), Keith Wade (now Chief Economist at Schroders) and Rachel Turner (now Director Multilateral Issues in DfID). We worked hard and played hard and have remained in touch over all these years. On the play side I was the social secretary and organised some great parties. On the work side we were committed to sharing our expertise and learning from each other. We had some great lecturers including Sir Mervyn King, Charlie Bean and Lord Nick Stern.

You recently hosted an alumni event in Zimbabwe, how was your experience of reconnecting with fellow alumni?

I hooked up with the existing LSE alumni network here in Harare through Linked In. The network includes both Zimbabweans who have come back and internationals like myself who are working here temporarily. The Zimbabweans are mostly in very senior and influential positions and want to give something back to their country. We are working on establishing a mentoring scheme for girls in schools with good academic results but from deprived backgrounds – the idea being to ensure that they are not held back from fulfilling their potential. 

I run the public sector international alumni network and I am keen to tap more into local alumni network and ensure we are sharing good practice. I also arranged an event at which Owen Barder from the Centre for Global Development interviewed Nick Stern in the run up to the climate summit last October. More exciting events are in the planning so watch this space.

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