Oliver Ballhatchet will now oversee consular, visa and trade activities in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry
Oliver Ballhatchet has assumed charge as the British Deputy High Commissioner in Chennai. Ballhatchet, succeeding Jeremy Pilmore-Bedford, would be representing the UK in Tamil Nadu and neighbouring union territory of Puducherry, an official press release said. “As the head of the Deputy High Commission in Chennai, Ballhatchet’s role will include promoting business and trade and also strengthening relationships between Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and the UK,” it said. Having joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 2004, he has served in various portfolios including counter- terrorism, energy and climate change before joining the British Embassy in Brasilia, Brazil.
Later, he moved to the British Consulate General in Rio de Janeiro, where he was the political consul. For the past two years, he served as the deputy head of the UK government’s UN Peacekeeping Joint Unit, the release said. During his stint in Brazil, he was also the Olympic and Paralympic attaché for the British teams at the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games, it added. This work was recognised when Ballhatchet was appointed a member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours List. He was quoted in the release as saying that “the UK and India have been among the top five investors in each other’s economies since 2010.”