Neil Crompton (diplomat)
Richard Anthony Neil Crompton is a British diplomat who has served as the British Ambassador to Ukraine since October 2025. He previously served as the British Ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 2020 to 2025, and has held several positions in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office including Director for the Middle East and North Africa between 2015 and 2019.
Early life
Born in September 1964, Crompton graduated from the University of Durham with a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Arts degree. Crompton served in the British Army from 1990 until 1995. He joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1995 as a Senior Research Officer in the Middle East and North Africa Group.Diplomatic career
After joining the Foreign Office in 1995, Crompton spent much of his early career focused on Middle Eastern affairs. He was Head of the Iran Section from 1997 to 1998 and studied Persian full-time between 1998 and 1999. From 1999 to 2003, he served as Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy in Tehran, Iran.Following his return to London, Crompton became Head of the Iraq Policy Unit from 2003 to 2005 and later served as the FCO's Iran Coordinator between 2005 and 2007. In 2007, he was posted to the British Embassy in Washington D.C. as a Counsellor responsible for foreign and security policy. During this assignment, he acted as the United Kingdom's representative to the United States Joint Intelligence Committee, taking part in policy coordination and high-level diplomatic engagement between the two countries. He remained in Washington until 2011.
Crompton returned to the FCO in 2011 to become Director for South Asia and Afghanistan, a position he held until 2014. In 2014, he moved to a new role as Director of the Eastern Europe and Central Asia Directorate, serving in that post until 2015. The following year, he was appointed Director for the Middle East and North Africa Directorate, where he oversaw the UK's diplomatic engagement across the region from 2015 to 2019. In 2019, prior to taking up his next overseas assignment, Crompton undertook full-time Arabic language training.
British Ambassador to Saudi Arabia (2020-2025)
Crompton was appointed British Ambassador to Saudi Arabia in October 2019, and took up the post in February 2020.His tenure involved supporting negotiations on a UK–Gulf Cooperation Council Free Trade Agreement. His ambassadorship also coincided with the signing of UK–Saudi security and defence cooperation agreements, including updated frameworks on defence collaboration in 2023, as well as the visits of three British prime ministers to Saudi Arabia: Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer. He completed his assignment in 2025 and was succeeded by Stephen Hitchen.