Top Foreign Office job for Visiting Academic

7 June 2019

Kumar Iyer, an Academic Visitor at Hertford since 2017, has today been appointed Chief Economist at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, becoming the first British-Asian to hold this role.

Kumar’s experience straddles both the public and private sectors. As well as his research here at Hertford, he has taught at Harvard – where he was a Kennedy Scholar – and has held senior positions at Oliver Wyman, the Boston Consulting Group, HM Treasury, the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. In 2013, he was posted to India as British Deputy High Commissioner and Director General for Economics, Trade and Commercial Affairs in South Asia.

In his new role, Kumar becomes the first BAME member of the FCO Management Board. He attributes his interest in international issues to his childhood, which was split between India and the Midlands and says:

“Growing up in Stoke-on-Trent I never thought I would get an opportunity to do something like this but I’m thrilled to be re-joining the Foreign Office at such an important time.”

We’ll be sorry to see Kumar leave his role at Hertford, but would like to offer him the best of luck from us all at such an exciting new point in his career.