Hugh Elliott outside the Mallorca Bulletin offices in Palma. | Jaume Morey

TW
0

Spanish utility Iberdrola today named Hugh Elliott, the former British ambassador to Spain, as executive chairman of the unit controlling its assets in countries including France, Germany, Italy, Australia and Japan. The former diplomat, who was involved in delicate post-Brexit negotiations over the status of the British overseas territory of Gibraltar, left his position as ambassador to Spain in September.

Starting in January, he will lead Iberdrola Energia Internacional, a unit with more than 10 billion euros in assets, including large offshore wind projects in France and Germany. Elliott served as the Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Spain and non-resident Ambassador Extraordinary to Andorra from 2019 to 2024.

Elliott joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1989 as an Assistant Desk Officer for the East Africa Department. In 1991, Elliott was posted to Madrid for five years. From 1996 to 1999 he held various positions in the FCO, including as the Head of the Amsterdam Treaty Unit. He was then posted to Buenos Aires for three years as Head of Economic, Political and Public Affairs. In 2002, he was in Paris as a Counsellor for Global Issues.

Related news

From 2006 to 2013, Elliott was the Head of Government Relations at Anglo American, a mining company. In 2013, he returned to the FCO as the Director of Communication, a post which he kept until 2017, when he was made the Director for Europe. In 2017, Elliott was the Director of International Agreements at the FCO and in 2018 he moved to the Department for Exiting the European Union as Director of Communications and Stakeholders.

Elliott took up the post of Ambassador to Spain and non-resident Ambassador Extraordinary to Andorra in August 2019. He presented his letter of credence to King Felipe VI on 5 September 2019.
Elliott has also served as a Trustee of the British Spanish Society and the Chairman of Canning House, an Anglo-Hispanic centre.

In 2020 he was appointed as the Patron of The Royal British Legion in Spain and the British Benevolent Fund. In April 2023, Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary Dominic Raab resigned after an inquiry into bullying found him to have acted in an “intimidating” and “aggressive” way towards officials. The Telegraph wrote that Elliott was one of the civil servants involved and that the inquiry had upheld a complaint about an incident where Raab’s behaviour was concluded to be “unreasonably and persistently aggressive” and “undermining and humiliating”.

Raab referenced the incident in his resignation letter; it was reported that Raab had recalled Elliot from Spain in November 2020 after it was suspected Elliott had exceeded Cabinet’s mandate in negotiations with the Spanish government over the presence of Spanish officers in Gibraltar. While remaining ambassador, Elliot was then replaced in negotiations by Simon Manley, his predecessor.
In March 2024, it was announced that Alex Ellis would be the new ambassador to Spain.