Nicola Brewer

Dame Nicola Mary Brewer DCMG is a British diplomat, currently serving as the British High Commissioner to South Africa.

Nicola Brewer joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in 1983, and has worked overseas in India, France and Mexico. She served as the FCO's Director for Global Issues from 2001 to 2002, and then as Director-General for Regional Programmes at the Department for International Development (DfID), the DfID board member supervising the UK's overseas bilateral aid programmes.^[2]

In 2004, she was appointed Director-General for Europe at the FCO, where she was the FCO Board member responsible for European matters. She led the FCO's contribution to the UK's 2005 Presidency of the European Union, and advised the Foreign Secretary and the Minister for Europe on European Union and other European policy issues.

In December 2006, Nicola Brewer was appointed by open competition as the first Chief Executive of the newly established Equality and Human Rights Commission, the successor body to the Commission for Racial Equality, the Disability Rights Commission and the Equal Opportunities Commission. She took up her new position in March 2007, standing down in May 2009 to succeed Paul Boateng as British High Commissioner to South Africa, Swaziland and Lesotho.

Nicola Brewer was educated at the Belfast Royal Academy, and read English at the University of Leeds, graduating with a BA in 1980, then taking a Doctorate in linguistics in 1988 there. Leeds also granted her an Honorary Doctorate of Laws in 2009. She was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 2003 New Year Honours^[3] and Dame Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (DCMG) in the 2011 Birthday Honours.^[4] She is married to former diplomat Geoff Gillham: they have two children. Her father, Trevor Brewer, played international rugby for Wales in the 1950s.^[5]

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