Anne Pringle

Dame Anne Fyfe Pringle (born 13 January 1955) is a British diplomat and the former HM Ambassador of the United Kingdom to the Russian Federation. From 2001 to 2004, Pringle was the British ambassador to the Czech Republic. In 2026, she was elected to serve as Chancellor of the University of St Andrews in Scotland.

Early life Pringle was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and attended the Glasgow High School for Girls. She then studied at the University of St Andrews, graduating with a degree in French and German in 1977.

Career

After graduation, Pringle entered the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), where she held various appointments to the United States, Moscow and Brussels (European Union).

Critics, including former Liberal Democrat MP Sir Alan Beith (then chair of the Commons Justice Select Committee), highlighted a lack of transparency in disclosing the panel's composition beforehand and argued that the inclusion of politically active members undermined public confidence in the process's independence.

Pringle served as a director of Ashmore Group Plc from 2013 to 2021.

Pringle is a Patron of Kew Gardens and Glyndebourne Opera.

Between 2016 and 2020, Pringle was a Senior Governor (now Senior Lay Member) on the Court of the University of St Andrews, and as such was the working chairperson of the University Court, presiding over meetings of the Court in the absence of the Rector.

She received honorary doctorates from Heriot-Watt University in 2010 and the University of St Andrews in 2022.