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Matt Burney, CMG (diplomat)

Matthew (Matt) John Burney (11 June, 1970) is a British diplomat currently serving as His Majesty's Consul-General to Shanghai. He assumed this role in September 2023 and has previously served for the British Council and concurrently for the British Embassy, Beijing and Consulates-General in Shanghai and Chongqing. Save for China, he has had postings in Japan, the Czech Republic, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Born in Manchester, Burney was brought up in Blackpool, England and graduated from St. Anne's College, Oxford in 1992, in musicology. In 1992 he won a place on the Japanese government's Japanese Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme as an Assistant Language Teacher working in rural Shimoyama-mura (since amalgamated with Toyota-city) in Aichi prefecture. In 1995 he entered Nanzan University, Nagoya to study for an advanced diploma in Japanese and in 1996 attained the Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level 1 (N1).

He joined the British Council in 1997 as Liaison Officer Nagoya Area and then went on to serve in the British Council in Chongqing, London, Prague, Dublin, Shanghai and Beijing. He resigned from the British Council in 2023 to join His Majesty's Government assuming the role of His Majesty's Consul-General to Shanghai from September 2023.

Biography

Early Years

Matthew Burney was born in St. Mary's Hospital, Manchester on 11 June, 1970. His mother and father ran a fish and chip shop in Droylsden, Manchester at the time of his birth. The family moved to Blackpool in 1973 where he was educated at Westcliff Infant School, Bispham Endowed Junior School, Montgomery High School and Blackpool Sixth Form College. From 1984 he won a place at the Royal Northern College of Music Junior Department where he studied clarinet with Neville Duckworth and piano with John Wilson. From 1988 he entered the Royal Northern College of Music senior department and, in 1989, entered St. Anne’s College, Oxford to read musicology.

 British Council'

Burney joined the British Council in 1997 as a locally engaged member of staff running a small directorate in Nagoya. From 2000, following a few months’ language training in Beijing Normal University, he established the British Council’s fourth mainland China office in Chongqing where he served concurrently as the British Consulate-General Chongqing’s Consul (culture and education). From 2003-05 he was the British Council’s East Asia Deputy Director. In 2005 he assumed the role of Deputy Director, Czech Republic and from 2007 its Acting Director. From 2008 he became the British Council Ireland’s Country Director during which he worked closely on Her Majesty The Queen’s state visit to Ireland in 2011. From 2011-15 he was the British Council’s Area Director East China and the Consulate-General’s Consul (culture and education). He returned to Japan in 2015 to assume the role of British Council Director, Japan and from 2019-2023 served at the British Council’s Director for China and concurrently at the British Embassy as Minister (culture and education).

CMG

He entered the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (CMG) in His Majesty The King’s New Year’s Honours in 2023 for services to the UK’s cultural relations.