After graduating, Laing worked as an ODI Fellow for the
Botswana Ministry of Works. She then joined the
Overseas Development Administration, which was then an agency of the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). She was
seconded to be head of the development office of the
UN Mission in Somalia 1993–94. She studied at
Cranfield School of Management 1995–96 for an
MBA degree. She continued with the Overseas Development Administration when it became part of the
Department for International Development (DFID) in 1997. She was seconded to the
Cabinet Office as deputy director of the Prime Minister's strategy unit 2001–05, then was head of DFID's International Division Advisory Department 2005–06, head of DFID in Sudan 2006–09, and director, human rights and international, at the
Ministry of Justice 2009–12. She then joined the FCO and was the UK's senior civilian representative to the
NATO operation in southern Afghanistan 2012–13. Laing was appointed to be
Ambassador to Zimbabwe from 2014. After four years in that post she was appointed to be
High Commissioner to Nigeria from November 2018. Laing was appointed CB in the
2012 New Year Honours. ==References==