Peter Salmon Collecott, CMG, is a British former diplomat. He was the British Ambassador to Brazil from 2004 to 2008.

He is chairman of the Ambassadors Partnership.

Early life

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Born on 8 October 1950[1] in Chingford, Essex, Collecott is the son of George William Collecott and his wife Nancie Alice Salmon. He was educated at Chigwell School and St John's College, Cambridge,[2] where he graduated BA in the Mathematical Tripos in 1972.[3][4] He went on to earn a PhD degree in theoretical physics at Cambridge in 1976, when his BA was promoted to MA.[3][5] His work as a physicist is cited.[6]

Career

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Collecott entered the Diplomatic Service in 1977. He studied Arabic before a posting as First Secretary (political) in Khartoum in 1980. In 1982 he was posted as First Secretary (Economic/Commercial) to Canberra. From 1986 he was head of the Iran/Iraq Section of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), and from 1988 Assistant Head of its European Community Department (External). In September 1989 he was appointed as Counsellor and Head of Chancery at the British embassy in Jakarta.[1] and was later Deputy Head of Mission there. In 1994 he went to Bonn as Counsellor (EU and Economic), returning to the FCO as Director for Resources in 1999.[7] In 2001 he was promoted to Chief Clerk and Director General of Corporate Affairs.[4]

In August 2004, Collecott was appointed as British Ambassador to Brazil[8][2] and remained in post there until November 2008.[9]

In 2006, Collecott wrote to Michael Levy that his recent visit to Brazil had led to many doors being suddenly opened to British diplomats there, as President Lula now wished to work closely with Tony Blair. He reported that "The Brazilians, from Lula downwards, got the substance they wanted from us".[10]

Writing in The Diplomatic Courier, Collecott has suggested that Brazil's national identity and ambition give it the potential to become a superpower.[11]

Collecott retired from HM Diplomatic Service in 2009 and became a consultant on diplomacy and business. In 2011 he was a founding partner of ADRg Ambassadors LLP, now called the Ambassador Partnership, of which he became chairman in 2016.[4]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Collecott, Peter Salmon, Counsellor (Head of Chancery) Jakarta" in The Diplomatic Service List, Vol. 26 (1991), p. 144
  2. ^ a b "COLLECOTT, H.E. Dr Peter Salmon, CMG (2001)" in Debrett's People of Today (2006), p. 332
  3. ^ a b "COLLECOTT Peter Salmon" in Cambridge University List of Members (Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 158
  4. ^ a b c "Collecott, Dr Peter Salmon (born 8 Oct. 1950), HM Diplomatic Service, retired; consultant on international diplomacy and business, since 2009" in Who's Who online, accessed 7 March 2023 (subscription required)
  5. ^ P. S. Collecott, The Σ-model and its Renormalisation in a Dimensionally Regularised Normal Product Formulation (University of Cambridge, 1974, Ph.D. thesis)
  6. ^ Andrei-Tudor Patrascu, The Universal Coefficient Theorem and Quantum Field Theory (Springer, 2016), p. 106
  7. ^ "Collecott, Peter Salmon; Director Resources" in The Diplomatic Service List (2001), p. 174
  8. ^ "Ambassador Peter Salmon Collecott" in Europa World Year Book 2005, Volume 1 (Taylor & Francis Group, 2005), p. 908
  9. ^ "Advisory Committee on Business Appointments | Home". Acoba.independent.gov.uk. Retrieved 25 January 2010.
  10. ^ Michael Levy, A Question of Honour: Inside New Labour and the True Story of the Cash for Peerages Scandal (2008), p. 221
  11. ^ "Brazil" in Ernest Giro, 2020: The Beginning of the End (Lulu, 2020), p. 74
Preceded by British Ambassador to Brazil
2004–2008
Succeeded by
Alan Charlton