Ambassador Quinton Quayle

Ambassador Quinton Quayle is a leading British diplomatic expert on South East Asia. He began his career in Bangkok in the late 1970s when he learnt Thai for a year prior to his appointment as Second Secretary at the British Embassy. After studying at the Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA), he served as First Secretary at the British Embassy in Paris. Ambassador Quayle underwent a secondment to Price Waterhouse Management Consultants and was then appointed as Head of the Foreign Office’s department for Export Promotion. He returned to Asia as Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy in Indonesia (1996-1999). He was appointed International Director of UK Trade and Investment in 1999 where he was responsible for the British government’s strategy to assist exporters and as well as the deployment of some 400 staff in London and 2,000 commercial officers in British embassies overseas. His first ambassadorial appointment was to Romania where he served as British Ambassador from 2002-06. During his tenure, Romania joined NATO and successfully completed preparations to become a member of the EU. After a secondment to VT Group, he returned to Asia in 2007 to take up his appointment as British Ambassador to Thailand where he was heavily involved in promoting an expansion of trade and investment links between the UK and Thailand.

Since leaving the Diplomatic Service at the end of 2010, Ambassador Quayle has acted for a number of companies with interests in Thailand including Salamander Energy and De La Rue. He has served on the boards of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS), the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) , KCS Group, Queen’s Counsel Appointments, the Nursing and Midwifery Council and the 2gether NHS Foundation Trust. Ambassador Quayle currently acts as a Senior Adviser to Thai Beverages and Prudential as well as Sindicatum. He sits on the boards of Cottsway Housing, the Council for Licensed Conveyancers and the HS2 Panel.