Next Administrator for Ascension Announced

11 October 2013

Government

Message from the Administrator

Marc Holland to be next Administrator of Ascension Island

I am delighted to be able to inform you that His Excellency Mark Capes, Governor of Ascension, has appointed Mr Marc Holland as the 19th Administrator of Ascension Island. Marc, who is 39 and a member of HM Diplomatic Service, will replace me in October 2014.

Marc has kindly sent us an introduction to himself and his family.

“I joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in 2002 and have worked at the UK Representation to the European Union in Brussels (negotiating EU social & employment legislation on behalf of the UK) and at the British Embassy in Berlin, where I worked on EU, agricultural and employment issues. I am currently Deputy Head of the Future of Europe Department in London. Before joining the FCO, I worked as a management consultant and briefly for Department of Trade & Industry. I also worked in local government, where I was responsible for school place planning for a London borough.

I met my wife Rachel at Oxford University and we married 7 years later. We both studied German, she also Portuguese and I, history. She has worked in publishing, website content management and for an oil multinational. Recently she qualified as a primary school teacher. We have four children – Annoushka (11), Jemima (9), Luca (7) and Noah (18 months). They will all be coming with us to Ascension and look forward to attending Two Boats School and getting involved in island life. As a family we especially enjoy walking and swimming in our free time and we hope to continue doing these as well as trying out some new skills and hobbies during our time on Ascension.

We are all thrilled to be coming to Ascension. We look forward to taking full part in the community and sharing
with you the unique experience of living and working in such a fascinating place.”

I hope Marc will visit Ascension early next year and in the process meet as many of you as possible. I know he is keen to do so.

Colin Wells
Administrator
9th October 2013