The government of the United Kingdom has appointed Dawn McKen as His Majesty’s new ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina, the British government announced.
McKen will succeed Julian Reilly, who will take up a new role within the British Foreign Service. She will assume the duties of ambassador in Bosnia and Herzegovina during August 2026.
Dawn McKen currently serves as the ambassador of the United Kingdom to Montenegro, to which she was appointed in 2023.
Prior to that, she completed the Global Strategy Program in International Security and Strategic Leadership at the Royal College of Defense Studies, and earned an MA in International Security and Strategy at King’s College, University of London.
During her diplomatic career, she held a number of senior positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Commonwealth and Development (FCDO), including the functions of Deputy Head of Mission and Chargé d’Affaires in Athens, Head of the Unit for European Programs and Additional Deputy Director for the future relations of the United Kingdom with Turkey and Cyprus.
She also served in Budapest, where she was first secretary for political affairs, later deputy head of mission and chargé d’affaires, as well as in Moscow in the position of second secretary for political affairs.
During her career, she also worked in Kabul as the deputy head of mission and chargé d’affaires, and was the deputy head of the Unit for Somalia in the Directorate for Africa.
McKen began her diplomatic career in the mid-1990s at the British Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where, among other things, she was in charge of the issues of Hungary and Bulgaria, European security, Cyprus and Malta, as well as security sector reform and conventional arms control. She also underwent specialized language training in Russian and Hungarian.
