Sarah Cooke is the British High Commissioner to Bangladesh.
She joined the Civil Service in 2002 and has served in a range of roles in the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Department for International Development (DFID) and the Cabinet Office. Before taking up her current role, Ms. Cooke was Head of the South East Asia Department in the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.
From 2016 to 2020, Ms. Cooke served as the British High Commissioner to the United Republic of Tanzania and the UK’s Representative to the East African Community. She was the Country Director, DFID Bangladesh from 2012 to 2016.
Before taking that role, she led the Growth & Resilience and the Aid Effectiveness & Accountability Departments in DFID; was Deputy Head, Commission for Africa Secretariat; and was a Deputy Director in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit. Prior to joining the Civil Service, Ms. Cooke worked in the Chief Economist’s Office at PricewaterhouseCoopers and as an Overseas Development Institute (ODI) Fellow in the Solomon Islands (Ministry of Commerce) and in Guyana (Ministry of Trade).
