Kumar Iyer

Kumar Sabapathy Iyer is a British economist and diplomat. He is currently the United Kingdom’s Ambassador & Permanent Representative to the United Nations, World Trade Organisation and other International Organisations based in Geneva.

The UK’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative oversees the work of the UK Mission in Geneva and represents the United Kingdom in its engagement with over 35 international organisations, agencies and offices based in the city. These include the UN Human Rights Council, the World Trade Organization, the World Health Organization, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Telecommunication Union, the World Intellectual Property Office, the Conference on Disarmament, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, CERN, and the World Economic Forum.

His career has been split between the private sector, public sector and academia.

Early life Born in London, Iyer grew up in India speaking Tamil and Hindi As an undergraduate he served as President of the Durham Union. He continued his education at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (MPhil), where he was a Bank of England scholar. He was later a Kennedy Scholar and Teaching Fellow in International Capital Markets at Harvard University.

Career Iyer joined the civil service, being hired from Boston Consulting Group into the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit in 2008 as part of the UK government's response to the 2008 financial crisis. In 2010 he transferred to HM Treasury as the Deputy Director for Strategy, Planning & Budget, and then as the Head of Financial Sector Interventions.

After leaving his post in India, Iyer worked as a "Visiting Academic" at Hertford College, Oxford, and as a senior partner in Oliver Wyman. In June 2019, it was announced that Iyer would serve as the Foreign & Commonwealth Office's first chief economist, on the FCO Board.

Iyer was a Director General in the Prime Minister's COVID-19 Taskforce, after which he was appointed as the Director General Economics, Science and Technology at the FCDO. This was part of structural changes in the Department to meet the immediate and long-term challenges posed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In this role, Iyer coordinated international economic policy, including oversight of the UK's sanctions regime – ensuring the FCDO makes full use of all economic tools in its foreign policy.

Prior to his appointment as UK's Ambassador to the UN, Iyer served as a Senior Adviser to the Board and Global Partnership of Clifford Chance.

In July 2025, Iyer was appointed the United Kingdom’s Ambassador & Permanent Representative to the United Nations, World Trade Organisation and other International Organisations based in Geneva.

Personal life Iyer married Kathryn Ann Worth, a criminal barrister at Middle Temple in 2004; they have one son and one daughter.