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Speaker

Alyson King is His Majesty’s Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She took up her
appointment in April 2023.Alyson most recently served as Deputy Head of Mission in Beirut, Lebanon,
and before that, as the UK government’s Arabic spokesperson and senior regional communicator for
Middle East and North Africa (MENA).Alyson was previously Deputy Director, Policy in the Scotland
Office.Before that, Alyson was in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), leading on bilateral
relations with 17 countries in northern and central Europe as well as the Republic of Ireland, EU
institutional policy and staffing, and the FCO’s work on devolution.Alyson’s previous roles included
conflict resolution work in Sudan, a secondment to the European Commission working on sanctions
and conflict diamonds, and legal advisory roles on international and EU law in both Brussels and
London.Alyson holds a First Class degree in Jurisprudence from Oxford University as well as an LLM in
International Law from Columbia Law School; a Masters in International Affairs from SIPA, Columbia
University, and a Masters in EU Law (distance learning) from King’s College London. She worked for a
leading US law firm in New York and London before joining the civil service. Alyson is married and has
two grown-up children. She speaks French, Spanish and Arabic.