Jamaica Announces New Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China

Fay Pickersgill, new ambassador of Jamaica to China

Fay Pickersgill, new ambassador of Jamaica to China

Fay Pickersgill is the new ambassador of Jamaica to the People’s Republic of China.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Arnold J Nicholson announced her appointment on Tuesday. She is expected to assume duties in the coming weeks.

“I believe that Mrs Pickersgill is uniquely qualified to serve as Jamaica’s top diplomat in Beijing. In her lifetime of service, she has proven to be a strong administrator, an experienced negotiator and a tremendous team player, with highly effective communication and interpersonal skills. I am confident that her particular brand of results-oriented and effective leadership will redound to the benefit of the strategic Jamaica-China relationship,” Minister Nicholson said in a news release.

Pickersgill is currently a council member of both the International University of the Caribbean and the Confucius Institute at the University of the West Indies, Mona, and has been the president of the Jamaica-China Friendship Association since 2008.

She has been Jamaica’s longest-serving director of tourism at the Jamaica Tourist Board, from 1994 to 2003, and served also as the founding executive director of the Tourism Action Plan Ltd (1988-1993), which later became the Tourism Product Development Company, the release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

Pickersgill, who was conferred with the Order of Distinction (Commander Class) in 2001, in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the tourism sector, holds a BSc in Economics and a MSc in Accounting from the University of the West Indies.

She will succeed Ralph Thomas, who was reassigned earlier this year as Jamaica’s Head of Mission in Washington, DC.

Read the full story at jamaicaobserver.com

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