Patron
Honorary Presidents
Chairman
Vice Chair
Council Members
Damaris Albarrán
David Elmer
Ana Elena González
Diana Maudslay Cross
Olivier Evans
Susana Seijas
Elizabeth Mistry
Patron
Honorary President
Chairman
Vice Chair
William has been the treasurer of the British Mexican Society since 2014, aiding the society with making donations to charities in Mexico and completing the End of Year accounts. His mother is a native of Mexico City and he regularly visits the city to spend time with family.
An experienced journalist and investigative reporter, Elizabeth often moderates events for the Society. She has reported for UK and international newspapers and digital publications including The Guardian, The Herald, Independent, The Telegraph and The Times, World Press Review (US) and Reforma (Mexico). Lizzie has a special reporting interest in art and Mexican archaeology and visits Mexico whenever possible.
His Royal Highness Prince Richard Alexander Walter George, KG, GCVO, the 2nd Duke of Gloucester, is a first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II. He was born on 26 August 1944 in Northampton, the second son of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester. He is also the youngest of the nine grandchildren of King George V and Queen Mary.
The Duke of Gloucester was educated at Eton and Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he received a Diploma in Architecture. In 1969 he became a practising partner at Hunt Thompson Architects in London. He is a member of RIBA and a Fellow of the Society of Arts.
The Duke of Gloucester gave up his architecture career in 1972 when his older brother William was killed in a flying accident. His brother’s untimely death meant that Richard became heir apparent to his father’s dukedom. In the same year, he married Birgitte van Deurs Henriksen, the younger daughter of a Danish lawyer. Two years later, upon the death of his father, Richard succeeded to the dukedom.
The Duke of Gloucester often attended national and international events to support the late Queen Elizabeth, as well as undertaking his own public duties. He is associated with over 150 organisations, and his patronages reflect his professional and personal interests, which include international humanitarian issues, heritage and the built environment, and military veterans.
On the 23rd of April 2021, Josefa González-Blanco Ortiz -Mena assumed her duties as Mexico’s representative in London after presenting to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) a copy of her Letters of Credence accrediting her as Ambassador of Mexico to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
She serves as Mexico’s Permanent Representative to the International Maritime Organization, the International Mobile Satellite Organization, International Coffee Organization, the International Sugar Organization, the International Whaling Commission and the International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds (FIDAC for its Spanish acronym).
Ambassador González-Blanco Ortiz-Mena has a Law Degree from the Anahuac University and a Master’s Degree in Transformative Arts from the John F. Kennedy University. She has done several studies at the Centre for Diplomatic and Strategic Studies in Paris, France.
She was Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources of Mexico and has a long history as a promoter of social and cultural programmes, both in Mexico and in the United Kingdom, as well as with environmental protection and wildlife conservation programmes.
She was a professor of comparative legal systems at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and the University of Monterrey. She also served as Administrative Secretary of the Graduate Program of the National University’s Law School.
Olivier Evans is a diplomat by trade and has also worked in the private sector. He served as U.K. Deputy Ambassador to Mexico between 2015-2019. He’s specialised in the Americas, Europe, climate and energy, geopolitics, and strategic communications. While in Mexico, he set up Sandals4Schools, a campaign to give shoes to barefooted children in poor regions.
Susana is a freelance journalist and leads on communications for the Society, including its new website and social media platforms. In 2021 she produced the Society’s first ever World Press Freedom Day discussion, now a yearly BMS event, highlighting the safety of journalists in Mexico, still one of the world’s most dangerous countries for the press. Susana has reported for major international media, including the BBC, CBS and the PBS NewsHour. A graduate of Leeds University (BA Russian) and of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, Susana divides her time between the UK and Mexico, where she runs a dog shelter.
Diana grew up in Guanajuato attending a Mexican school. She loves Mexican food and weather and visits as often as she can. A lawyer and professional interpreter, she has managed the BMS membership since 2010.
Ana Elena joined the BMS in 2019 and regularly contributes to our event programming. She was until recently the Director of the Centre for Mexican Studies, UNAM-UK, a post she held for five years. In this role, she was able to promote UK-Mexico educational exchange and highlight the work of Mexican academics in the UK. She holds a B.A. in English, an M.A. in Comparative Literature from UNAM, and a PhD in English from Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London.
David oversaw the Society’s Charity Committee for several years and brings a wealth of business know-how to the BMS. His early marketing career was with Spillers Foods, BirdsEye Foods and then Walls Ice Cream where he focused on building key brands, culminating in the development of Magnum, now the biggest global ice cream brand. Moving to Unilever’s head office he became the SVP responsible for the food business in the Latin American and South Asia regions, and then relocated to Latin America where he worked for 21 years, latterly as the regional director of Del Monte Foods, living in Argentina, Venezuela and Mexico. Returning to the UK, he became Executive Chairman of Capsicana, a challenger brand in the Latin American Food sector.
David is a Fellow of the IOD and RSA and a member of the Marketing Society and a Marshall Goldsmith Coach. In addition, he has just been elected as the Senior Warden of the Worshipful Company of Marketors. He is a graduate of Oxford University, where he read Chemistry. Apart from the BMS and Marketors his other interests include tennis, scuba diving, theatre and opera.
As an Arts Consultant with experience producing lasting cultural exchanges between Mexico and UK, Susan is instrumental in helping lead the Society reach wider membership and impact. Prior to moving back to the UK in 2019, she directed a cultural programme at The Anglo Mexican Foundation, incorporating performing and visual arts, which became an established vehicle for bilateral exchange of artists, directors, writers, orchestras and theatre companies between the UK and Mexico. Susan was appointed an MBE by Queen Elizabeth in 2006 for her services to international collaboration and exchange. Susan divides her time between the UK and Mexico, where she arranges UK musicians to perform at the yearly Cervantino Festival in Guanajuato.
Damaris joined the BMS as Treasurer in 2008 and presently manages the BMS Book Club, one of the Society’s most popular offerings, with events featuring contemporary authors. Damaris first traveled to Mexico to teach English in 1977, when she met her future husband and moved to a career in the banking sector after gaining a MBA at Manchester Business School. When her husband died unexpectedly just after their daughter was born, she moved back to the UK and worked in the City for 28 years. She has kept in touch with her husband’s family, many of whom attended the joyful occasion of her daughter’s wedding last year.
Richard Maudslay, the current Chairman of the British Mexican Society, leads on engagement both across the BMS core group of volunteers (Council Members) and its wider membership, working to promote Mexico-UK relations. Since 2008, he has led the charitable work of the Society and produced hundreds of Mexico-related events. An engineer by background, Richard has a wide-ranging business career. From roles in Scottish engineering companies he moved to Guanajuato, Mexico, in 1978 to construct and then manage Transformadores Parsons Peebles de Mexico, (now Siemens Mexico), a major supplier to Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE). In 1985 he returned to the UK and took on various roles within what became Rolls-Royce Plc. Since then, he has held a variety of non-executive roles in government owned and private sector businesses. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Chartered Electrical Engineer and a graduate of the University of Edinburgh. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Her Majesty the Queen in 2006 for services to business in North East England.
