Afternoon Development Session: Crisis Preparedness & Response – a British perspective

The first Afternoon Development Session of this Consular Corps season will take place on Thursday, October 18th at the British Embassy, 3100 Massachusetts Avenue NW, from 03.30 – 5 pm. The speaker will be Mrs. Meg Williams, the British Consular Regional Director for the Americas (covering Canada, USA, the Caribbean, Latin, Central & Southern America) who has kindly agreed to give us a presentation on “Crisis Preparedness & Response – a British perspective”. Mrs. Williams’s profound experience in the field and vast responsibility will surely be a unique opportunity for all of us to learn how to be better prepared for a next eventual crisis!

Please note to arrive from 03.15 pm on allowing time for the security check & the British Embassy will kindly offer ”Tea & Biscuits” from 03.30 – 04.00 pm. The presentation will start at 04.00 pm.

If you would like to attend, please forward your name to Mary Njie, Pro Consular at the British Embassy Mary.njie@fco.gov.uk copying in Programme Chairperson, Elisabeth Herndler cc.programchair@gmail.com

Meg Williams: Consular Regional Director, Americas. Bio:

Meg has overall responsibility for Consular Services to British nationals in Canada, the USA, the Caribbean, Central and South America.  They are delivered through 80 front line Consular staff, working in 37 locations in 24 countries.  She is based at the British Consulate-General in Miami, Florida.

Meg is a career diplomat.  Before this posting, Meg was based at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London, with responsibility for the Global Response Centre (the FCO’s 24/7 emergency response team), and for the Consular Contact Centres, which manage all daytime consular telephone calls to British Embassies and Consulates globally. She played an active part in the FCO’s crisis response to the 2015 Tunisia shootings of British tourists, Nepal earthquake, and the Sharm el Sheikh airport evacuations.  She worked previously on the response to crises/natural disasters in South Sudan, Ukraine, Libya and the Philippines.

Meg began her career as a Russian and German language specialist in the FCO’s Research and Analysis Department, and expertise in Russian and Eastern European affairs was an early career anchor. Other roles include a period as leader of the Diversity Team, when she introduced the first flexible working programme for FCO staff; and as Head of the Corporate Services Programme, a global efficiency programme which delivered significant (>£30m) savings in administrative functions.

Meg has four adult children and is a big fan of the great outdoors.