H.E. Timothy Giles Paxman, LVO (born November 15, 1951) is the current British Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Spain.
Giles Paxman was educated at Malvern College[1] and New College, Oxford. Before becoming the Ambassador to Mexico, Paxman served in several other diplomatic positions in France, Italy, and Belgium.
Giles Paxman worked in the Department of the Environment between 1974 and 1978.
From 1978 to 1979, he attended the esteemed École nationale d'administration in Paris, the same school as Jacques Chirac, among many other famous alumni. Afterwards, he worked for the Department of Transport, until 1980.
Between 1980 and 1984, Paxman served as the United Kingdom's Permanent Representative to the EC for Environment, Consumer Affairs and the Internal Market in Brussels.
During the mid-eighties, Paxman worked for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, first in the European Community Department (External) between 1984–1986, then in the Southern European Department, between 1986-1988.
In 1988, he was appointed Head of Chancery at the British High Commission in Singapore, a position he held until 1991, when he took a position as Deputy Head of the Assessments Staff in the Cabinet Office, until 1993.
Between 1994 and 1998, Giles Paxman was the Counsellor of Economic and Commercial Affairs in Rome.
Between 1999 and 2002, Paxman worked with the UK Permanent Representation to the EU in Brussels, after which, in 2002, he was appointed Minister and Deputy Head of the Mission at the UK Embassy in Paris and Counsellor of Political and Institutional Affairs.
On June 16, 2005, the UK Government announced that Paxman had been appointed Her Majesty's Ambassador to The United Mexican States (Mexico). He moved to Mexico and assumed his role as the Ambassador on October 3, 2005. Only weeks later, on October 25, he travelled to Cancún to oversee the evacuation of British nationals affected by Hurricane Wilma.
Paxman became Her Majesty's Ambassador to Spain on October 19, 2009.
Giles Paxman is married to Ségolène Cayol. He is a Lieutenant in the Royal Victorian Order. He has three daughters, Julia, Lauren and Alice, born in 1982, 1984 and 1988.
His older brother Jeremy is a journalist for the BBC.