Before being posted to Seoul, Ambassador Michelle Winthrop was the Policy Director in the Development Cooperation and Africa Division in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. She was previously the Climate and Resilience Policy Lead. Prior to joining the Irish Government, Michelle was Director of Programmes for Farm Africa, a British NGO working with agriculture, forestry and market development in Africa. Michelle has worked for many years prior to that as livelihoods and climate adviser within the UK’s Department for International Development, in the UK. This involved postings in East Africa (on secondment to the World Bank), Indonesia and Central America, as well as positions at HQ in the UK, including one working on gender and multilateral reform.

With her family, she has lived for many years in Africa, some time in Central America, and a stint in Scotland. She is a big fan of the GAA, and so am very excited to see the development of the clubs around the country, and the growth of Gaelic football, especially among young Koreans.

She is also really interested in food - trying out Korean food, but also championing Irish food (and drink!) too. She firmly believes that Korea is potentially a really exciting market, and a source of investment for Irish businesses too, across a range of sectors. Her role here is working closely with Enterprise Ireland to seek out all of those opportunities, and advance commercial relations between Korea and Ireland by championing the great innovation that exists in Ireland.