Barbara Woodward

Her Excellency Dame Barbara Woodward DCMG OBE
Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations
Incumbent
Assumed office 6 August 2020
Monarchs	Elizabeth II Charles III
Prime Minister	Boris Johnson Liz Truss Rishi Sunak
Preceded by	Dame Karen Pierce
British Ambassador to China
In office 19 February 2015 – 6 August 2020
Monarch	Elizabeth II
President	Xi Jinping
Prime Minister	David Cameron Theresa May Boris Johnson
Preceded by	Sir Sebastian Wood
Succeeded by	Caroline Wilson
Personal details
Born	Barbara Janet Woodward (1961-05-29) 29 May 1961 (age 63) Gipping, Suffolk, England
Residence(s)	New York, United States
Alma mater	University of St Andrews Yale University

Dame Barbara Janet Woodward DCMG OBE (born 29 May 1961) is a British diplomat and China expert.^[1] She is the current Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations, having previously served as British Ambassador to China from 2015 to 2020, the first woman to hold that position.

Woodward undertook her undergraduate degree at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, before going on to study international relations at Yale University. She joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1994 and has worked in China, Russia, the European Union and at the United Nations.^[2]