Photos by Colin Hamilton/Freelance Photographer
LEFT: British High Commissioner Jeremy Cresswell (centre) introduces financial analyst Keith Collister (left) to Chris Woods, director to the Americas in the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
RIGHT: Executive director of the Institute of Jamaica, Vivian Crawford (left), chats with Dr. Barbara Munske.

Daviot Kelly, Staff Reporter

If you're going to work well somewhere, get to know the people and the place.

And that was the task of Chris Woods, who was appointed Director of the Americas in the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office in February, as he was hosted by British High Commissioner to Jamaica Jeremy Cresswell at a reception on Wednesday.

In settling into his new job (which is to oversee the activity of all the British missions in this part of the world), he travelled to meet with the embassies and high commissions to network and build relations. First stop: Jamaica. Woods said that this was his first time in the Caribbean, and he chose Jamaica first because of the beneficial ties that the high commission has forged with the government and other entities. Mexico and Washington D.C. are his other stops before heading back to London.

Background

He joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1981. He was promoted to First Secretary in 1987. He has served in various capacities during his tenure, and even did stints in the Environment Department. He was head of the International and Policy Team, Deputy Prime Minister's Central Policy Group, Cabinet Office (subsequently Office of the Deputy Prime Minister) in 2001. His was also Consul-General in Guangzhou, China.

Guests included Canadian High Commissioner Denis Kingsley and wife Jo Ann, Justice Minister Dorothy Lightbourne, Chief Justice Zaila McCalla, Pauline Samuels, Col. Trevor MacMillan, Sandra Grant-Griffiths, Lorne McDonnough, E. Courtenay Rattray, Jo Seaman, Martin Fidler, Andy Jones, Bob Bark and Prof. Anthony Clayton.