A distinguished diplomat, Neelam has been the Indian Ambassador to Denmark and Ivory Coast with concurrent accreditation to several West African countries. She has also served in Indian embassies in Washington D.C., Bangkok and Rome. Her most recent assignment was as Consul General in New York. Her most exciting was liaison with the US congress on strategic issues in Washington DC. During her assignments in the Ministry of External Affairs, she was Joint Secretary for Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and the Maldives. She has also been on the desk for South East Asia and the Pacific, the Middle East and North Africa and Bhutan. Ambassador Deo has a Master’s degree from the Delhi School of Economics. She is currently a Distinguished Fellow with the Centre for Air Power Studies, advisor to The Climate Group, a consultancy for sustainable development, and sits on the board of Breakthrough, a human rights organization.