A career diplomat with 34 years of experience will replace Governor John Rankin in January, the Governor’s Office announced on Friday.
Daniel Pruce will take over at a fraught time in the Virgin Islands’ relationship with the United Kingdom, which has threatened to implement a period of direct rule if the VI government doesn’t meet its May deadline to implement comprehensive reforms recommended by the recent Commission of Inquiry.
“I’m honoured to have been appointed the next governor of the British Virgin Islands,” Mr. Pruce said in a message he posted to Instagram and Twitter. “It will be a privilege to serve the people of BVI in helping build a secure and prosperous future for everyone on the islands.”
He will assume the position three years after the arrival of Mr. Rankin, who will retire from the diplomatic service, according to the Governor’s Office.
Mr. Rankin took up the post days after his predecessor Gus Jaspert announced the COI in January 2021, and he served throughout that probe and during the arrest of then-Premier Andrew Fahie in April 2022 in Florida.
Since then, he has led the charge in pressuring the VI government to keep its promise to implement the COI reforms by the May deadline — a responsibility that Mr. Pruce will take over.
Mr. Rankin’s tenure was also marked by the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced him to spend his first 14 days in the territory in quarantine.
VI governors typically serve an initial period of three years, which is sometimes extended for one or two years.
Experience
Mr. Pruce has served in a wide range of roles as a UK diplomat since joining the then-Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1999.
For instance, he was interim director of communication at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office from 2021 to 2022. Before that, he was British ambassador to the Philippines and non-resident ambassador to Palau from 2017 to 2021, according to a biography on the FCDO website.
From 2012 to 2016, he was deputy head of mission at the British Embassy in Madrid, Spain, and from 2008 to 2012 he held the same position at the British Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand.
Before that, he worked in the FCO’s Europe Directorate in London, leading on internal European Union issues and strategic communications. From 2004 until 2005, he was the director of the FCO’s change programme.
Additionally, he worked in the Prime Minister’s Press Office in 10 Downing Street from 2002 to 2004, briefing journalists on international issues and accompanying then-Prime Minister Tony Blair on overseas visits, the biography states.
He was also British spokesman on EU issues from 1999 to 2001 at the UK’s Permanent Representation to the EU in Brussels, and he worked at NATO headquarters in Brussels during the Kosovo crisis in 1999 and served as a member of the NATO communications team in Macedonia.