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Ambassador Gerard McGurk

Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo
Ambassador Gerard McGurk of United Kingdom is Head of OSCE Mission in Kosovo since 5 May 2025.
(OSCE/Leurina Mehmeti ) Photo details

Ambassador Gerard McGurk, a career member of the British Diplomatic Service, assumed his duties as the Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo as of 5 May 2025. 

Before this role, Ambassador McGurk served as Deputy Director and Head of Security and Resilience Department in the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) from August 2023 to April 2025. Previously, he was Deputy Director Network and Performance from August 2022 until August 2023. From August 2021 until April 2022, he led the Consular Pillar in the Afghanistan Task Force in London, playing a critical crisis leadership role in the high-profile international Kabul evacuation in August-September 2021.

Prior to these London-based roles, he served as Consul-General and Consular Regional Director at British Embassies in Madrid, Spain and Amman, Jordan respectively. He has served as Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy in Skopje, North Macedonia and as a Political Adviser to the EU Special Representative in Skopje from 2007 to 2009. He was also assigned to the British Embassy in Skopje in the years 1996 to 2000. Ambassador McGurk was part of the British Government’s Final Status Team related to the work of UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari from 2005 to 2007.

Previous assignments have included the UK Mission to the United Nations in New York, as the government’s representative to the Iraq and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committees. He deployed to Iraq to work with the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in the summer of 2003. His first overseas assignment was to the British Embassy in Athens, Greece in 1991.

Ambassador McGurk holds a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the Open University in the UK. Apart from English, his native language, he speaks Macedonian and some Spanish. He is married with two adult children.

Former Heads of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo

2020-2024: Michael Davenport (United Kingdom)

2016-2020: Jan Braathu (Norway)

2012-2016: Jean-Claude Schlumberger (France)

2008-2012: Werner Almhofer (Austria)

2007-2008: Tim Guldimann (Switzerland)

2005-2007: Werner Wnendt (Germany)

2002-2005: Pascal Fieschi (France)

1999-2001: Dan Everts (Netherlands)