The British ambassador to Ireland, Mrs Veronica Sutherland, has been appointed Commonwealth deputy secretary-general with responsibility for economic and social affairs, becoming the first woman to hold the post and to serve the Commonwealth at this level.
She takes up the position in February, succeeding Sir Humphrey Maud, who is retiring at the end of this year.
A career diplomat, Mrs Sutherland was appointed as British ambassador to Ireland in April 1995, taking over from Mr David Blatherwick. She has had a distinguished career with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in Britain, serving in a variety of roles during her 30-year tenure.
Yesterday, Mrs Sutherland said she was looking forward to the challenge of her new assignment. "During the course of my lifetime, the Commonwealth has left behind its imperial past and grown into a mature and dynamic modern organisation of 54 equal and sovereign nations. I am excited by the prospect of making an active contribution to the Commonwealth as an increasing force for good in the world." The Commonwealth secretary-general, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, pointed to Mrs Sutherland's "considerable skill and wide experience". He said he was delighted that a woman had been appointed at such a level.
Mrs Sutherland was born in New York in 1939 and her family moved to Winchester, Hampshire, in 1950, shortly after her father's death.
After leaving university in London with a degree in German, she worked as a junior secretary to the Conservative MP, Mr Airey Neave, who was later murdered by the INLA in a car bomb in London.
After a short time, she went back to college in Southampton and took a masters degree in German. She joined the Foreign Office in 1965, and two years later she was appointed first secretary to the embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark.
After five years working at the Foreign Office in London, Ms Sutherland was appointed first secretary to the embassy in New Delhi, India, in 1975.
Three years later she returned to the civil service in Whitehall, where she remained until 1981, when she was appointed delegate to UNESCO. In 1987, she served as ambassador to the Ivory Coast, where she stayed for three years before returning to the Foreign Office.
Ms Sutherland was the first woman to be appointed British ambassador to Ireland and is one of only four women ambassadors in the British Foreign Service worldwide.