Donald was educated in Switzerland, England and France. He read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford and is also a graduate of Ecole nationale d’administration.

At Oxford, Donald was active in University life, especially the Oxford Union Society. After graduating, he worked for a City merchant bank, then went to Paris, where he spent one year in the east of the city teaching a group of unemployed young people from underprivileged backgrounds to read and write as part of a project to bring them back into employment.

Donald entered French government service in 1998, working successively in the budgetary, media, cultural and diplomatic fields. He left the French administration in 2008.

Donald enjoys classical music, especially the period 1780-1850, spanning from Mozart to the younger Wagner, as well as English Church music (especially the sixteenth, seventeenth and nineteenth centuries), and opera. His other interests include English and French literature—particularly the period between 1800 and 1960. He rides a Scott bicycle.

Donald has an active web presence, mainly focused on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. Digital photography, particularly since he has started using a digital SLR camera, is an even more recent field of interest, and one in which he still has much to learn.