Catherine Arnold

Catherine Elizabeth Jane Arnold, OBE (born 10 November 1978) is a British academic administrator and former diplomat. Since October 2019, she has been the Master of St Edmund's College, Cambridge: she is the fifteenth person to hold that post and the first woman. From May 2015 until 2018 she served as Her Majesty's Ambassador to Mongolia. After three degrees, she worked as a management consultant and then journalist. She had joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 2006.

For the author, see Catharine Arnold.
Catherine Arnold

OBE
Arnold in 2018
British Ambassador to Mongolia
In office
May 2015 – March 2018
MonarchElizabeth II
Preceded byChristopher Stuart
Succeeded byPhilip Malone
Personal details
Born (1978-11-10) 10 November 1978
Pusan, South Korea
CitizenshipUnited Kingdom
EducationOverseas School of Colombo
Ryde School with Upper Chine
Alma materTrinity College, Cambridge (BA, MPhil)
University of Nottingham (MA)

Early life and education

Arnold was born on 10 November 1978 in Pusan, South Korea. She was educated at the Overseas School of Colombo, an English medium international school located in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and at the Ryde School with Upper Chine, an independent school on the Isle of Wight, England. She then matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge as a choral scholar, where she studied maths and theology, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree; and philosophy of religions, graduating with a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) degree. She was a pilot in the University Air Squadron. She then studied religious conflict at the University of Nottingham, graduating with a Master of Arts (MA) degree.[1]

Career

From 2001 to 2003, Arnold was a management consultant with Oliver Wyman and Co. Then, from 2003 to 2006, she worked as a journalist.[1]

Diplomatic career

In 2006, Arnold joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).[1] From 2006 to 2007, she was assigned to work on Prevent, a counter terrorism strategy.[2] She then worked in the Political, Press & Public Affairs office in Muscat, Oman (2007–2008) and in Baghdad, Iraq (2008).[2] In 2009, she received language training in Persian and was posted to Tehran, Iran.[1][2] Then, from 2011 to 2013, she was the Head of Communication and a spokesperson in Kabul, Afghanistan.[1] In 2013, she returned to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London where she had been appointed Head of its Emerging Powers Initiative.[2] In 2014, she worked on a joint FCO and UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) initiative titled "Philanthropic Investment".[1]

On 23 March 2015, it was announced that Arnold would be the next British Ambassador to Mongolia in succession to Christopher Stuart. She took up the appointment in May 2015.[2] In March 2018 she was replaced by Philip Malone.[3] From 2018, she served as head of the Illegal Wildlife Trade Unit at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office,[4] and then led the United Kingdom's successful bid to chair the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP26.

In the New Year Honours of 2019, she was awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire).

Academic career

On 7 March 2019, it was announced that Arnold had been elected as the next Master of St Edmund's College, Cambridge. She took up the appointment on 1 October 2019: she is the college's 15th master, and its first female head.[5] By March 2020, the College was subject to lockdown owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and, since it caters entirely for mature and graduate students, many of whom had no other home to which to travel safely, she unexpectedly found she was (for a short spell) head of the largest Cambridge college, based on numbers of students living onsite.[6]

Selected works
  • Arnold, Catherine (2004). Baghdad. Chalfont St. Peter: Bradt Travel Guides. ISBN 978-1841620978.

References
  1. 'ARNOLD, Catherine Elizabeth Jane', Who's Who 2017, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2017; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2016; online edn, Nov 2016 accessed 10 Nov 2017
  2. "Change of Her Majesty's Ambassador to Mongolia". Government of the United Kingdom. 23 March 2015. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
  3. "Change of Her Majesty's Ambassador to Mongolia in March 2018". UK Government. Retrieved 12 July 2018.
  4. "Arnold, Catherine Elizabeth Jane". Who's Who 2019. Oxford University Press. 1 December 2018. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U283523. Retrieved 4 January 2019.
  5. "Catherine Arnold OBE elected the next Master of St Edmund's College". St Edmund's College. University of Cambridge. 7 March 2019. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
  6. "Unexpected Experiences". University of Cambridge. November 2020. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
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