Laurie Bristow

Laurence "Laurie" Stanley Charles Bristow CMG (born 23 November 1963) is a British diplomat.
Bristow was educated at Colchester Royal Grammar School and Trinity College, Cambridge where he obtained a BA in 1986. He achieved a PhD, awarded by University of Cambridge in 1990, with his thesis called "Ezra Pound: Poetry and Public Speaking".
Bristow joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in 1990. In 1992, after attending a year of Romanian language training, he was posted to Bucharest, Romania where he worked for three years as Second Secretary. He then returned to the FCO in London where he worked in the European Union Department. From 1996–1998, he served as Private Secretary to the Minister of State for Europe. After a year of Turkish language training, he worked in Ankara, Turkey as Head of the Political Section from 1999–2002. From 2002–2003 he worked in Rome at the NATO Defence College. In 2003 Bristow worked on the Iraq Policy Unit, FCO.
Bristow become the British Ambassador to Azerbaijan from February 2004 until 2007. He was Minister (Deputy Head of Mission) in Moscow for 2007–10. He then returned to London as Director, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, from 2010 until 2012. He subsequently replaced Thomas Drew as Director, Intelligence and National Security. In 2015, he was succeeded by Jonathan Allen and appointed to be Ambassador to the Russian Federation.
Bristow was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) "for services to British foreign policy interests and national security" in the 2015 New Year Honours.