This blog post was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

Jonathan Knott

Former British ambassador to Hungary, Budapest

Part of UK in Hungary

23rd December 2013 Budapest, Hungary

British Alumni for innovation and competitiveness in the V4 countries

Guest blog by Dr. Zoltán Csedő, Member of the Board, Hungarian Association of British Alumni.

It was a great privilege to launch the www.britishalumni.org knowledge-sharing portal at the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Wednesday 18 December. MFA Deputy State Secretary Gergely Prőhle hosted the launch event with British Ambassador Jonathan Knott. Ambassadors of the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia were also present and showed great interest for our innovative plans.

MFA press conference

This regional initiative of the Hungarian Association of British Alumni (HABA) is also a flagship project of the Hungarian Presidency of the Visegrad Co-operation, co-sponsored by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office and International Visegrad Fund.

Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Chevening Scholarship Fund, we’d like to reconnect British alumni within the V4 countries, encouraging them to share their knowledge for the benefit of the society, to boost innovation and competitiveness within the V4 countries.

The www.britishalumni.org portal and related smartphone applications provide a platform for knowledge-sharing and policy dialogue for more than 800 British alumni and local stakeholders in Central Europe in key strategic issues such as energy security, healthcare reform, sustainable financial services, research and development, manufacturing and technology.

We also offer innovative internal networking platforms to the regional British alumni community. They are able to post blogs, as well as British alumni related events and job offers across Visegrad countries.

“The British government is excited by this opportunity to engage more closely with the V4. This project is exciting, because it will help us mobilize citizens of Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia who have studied in the UK with British government scholarships to review how best our countries, their governments, businesses and civil society can collaborate and support each other. I hope this will signal the beginning of a bright new chapter for British involvement in the region,” British Ambassador Jonathan Knott said at the lunch event.

The great interest for professional networking and knowledge sharing opportunities within the V4 alumni community justifies Ambassador Knott’s high expectations. Our next event goes live within a month: the V4 British alumni community invites government officials and industry professionals of the Visegrad countries and UK to attend an innovative webinar on V4 energy industry and energy policy challenges, moderated from Brussels. We are going to focus on EU’s 2030 energy and climate change strategies in the mirror of competitiveness of the Visegrad countries, on the 23rd January 2014.

I hope you’ll be a regular visitor of our www.britishalumni.org knowledge-sharing portal. Wishing you a merry Christmas and a very happy New Year, we look forward to seeing you at our events in 2014.

About Jonathan Knott

Jonathan Knott was appointed Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Hungary in March 2011 and arrived in Budapest in February 2012 to take up his post. He left this post on April…

Jonathan Knott was appointed Her Majesty’s Ambassador to
Hungary in March 2011 and arrived in Budapest in February 2012 to take
up his post. He left this post on April 2015.
He has previously held a variety of diplomatic posts at home and
abroad, several with a particular focus on commercial and corporate
finance issues. Jonathan has served in a number of positions in the
British Diplomatic Service since joining in 1988:
Before his appointment was Deputy Head of Mission and Director for Trade and Investment in South Korea from 2008 to 2011.Between 2005 and 2008 he held the post of Deputy Finance Director in the FCO.From 2000 to 2005 he served as First Secretary (Trade, Corporate Affairs and Finance Negotiator) in UKDel OECD Paris.From 1996 to 2000 he was First Secretary (Head of Political/Economic/Aid Section) in Mexico.From 1995 to 1996 he worked in the FCO as Deputy European Correspondent at the EU Directorate.Between 1991 and 1995 he served as Third later Second Secretary (Political / Press and Public Affairs) in Havana.From 1990 to 1991 he was Desk Officer in the FCO’s First Gulf War Emergency Unit.Between 1988 and 1990 he worked as Desk Officer in the FCO in the Anti Drugs Cooperation Department.
Jonathan holds an MA in law from Oxford University, and he is a
member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. He speaks
English, French, Spanish and Hungarian. He is married to Angela Susan
Knott and has one daughter and two sons.

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