Brian Maurice Bennett is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 diplomat

Diplomat

A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...

. From 2003 to 2007, he was the Ambassador to Belarus.

Bennett entered the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO is a British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...

 in 1971. After two years as a desk officer, he received his first foreign posting, as an information secretary at the British embassy to Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

, where he served until 1976, when he was transferred back to London to serve in the FCO's personnel department. After further stints at the British embassies to Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 and Barbados

Barbados

Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...

, he served as first secretary in the British delegation at the Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions

Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions

The Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions talks were a series of negotiations held in Vienna between NATO and Warsaw Pact countries between 1973 and 1989.-Origins:...

 talks in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 and in the British embassy in the Netherlands.

In 1992, Bennett returned to Whitehall

Whitehall

Whitehall is a road in Westminster, in London, England. It is the main artery running north from Parliament Square, towards Charing Cross at the southern end of Trafalgar Square...

 as a desk officer. In 1997, he received another foreign posting, this time as Deputy Head of Mission in Tunis, where he served until 2000. After another position in the FCO's personnel department, in 2003, Bennett was appointed to head his first diplomatic mission

Diplomatic mission

A diplomatic mission is a group of people from one state or an international inter-governmental organisation present in another state to represent the sending state/organisation in the receiving state...

, in Belarus and is now succeeded by Nigel Gould-Davies.