New arrivals
Diego Stacey
Ambassador of Ecuador
Stacey’s career has spanned 40 years and four continents with postings in Bogota, Cairo, Hamburg, the Vatican, Bonn, Washington, Stockholm and Vienna. His first ambassadorial post was in Sweden.
He has also served in various strategic capacities in Quito, including as under-secretary for bilateral relations, acting minister of foreign affairs and as a representative of Ecuador to international and regional organizations.
Recently, from 2008 to 2013, he was ambassador to Austria and permanent representative to international organizations based in Vienna. He was therefore highly engaged in several UN bodies. As vice-chairman of the committee on peaceful uses of outer space, he helped establish the Ecuadorean Space Commission.
He has a doctorate in law from the Universidad Central del Ecuador and is married to Maria Dolores Chiriboga. They have four children.
Claudio Taffuri
Ambassador of Italy
After completing an economics and commerce degree, Taffuri joined the foreign service in 1992.
Shortly thereafter, he was assigned to the directorate general for emigration and social affairs. Three years later, he was sent, as second secretary, to the embassy in Mozambique. In 1999, he became first secretary in Serbia and returned to headquarters three years later as legation secretary in the co-ordination unit. A year later, he was named to the crisis unit and, in 2004, he became chief of staff to the director general in the Europe division.
In 2007, he was appointed commercial counsellor at the permanent mission for international organizations in Geneva and for 10 months in 2011, he was on special assignment to Herat, Afghanistan. He became head of the crisis unit in 2012 where he remained until this appointment.
Taffuri is married to Maria Enrica Francesca Stajano. They have two children.
Shin Maeng-ho
Ambassador of Korea
Ambassador Shin is a career diplomat with more than 30 years experience.
Since 1985, he has served in several areas, with a particular focus on multilateral and security concerns, including those related to the North Korean nuclear issue. He has also served as director-general for international legal affairs at the foreign ministry.
His career also featured senior roles, including director of the North Korean nuclear affairs division of the office of Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs (2006) and deputy spokesman (2010).
His previous postings have included Belgium (1994), Ethiopia (1996), Austria (2002), Russia (2006) and San Francisco (2008). He also served as ambassador to Bulgaria (2013-2016). Prior to this posting, he was ambassador for international security affairs at the foreign ministry in Seoul.
Shin holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in international relations. He is married and has one son and one daughter.
Natalia Quant Rodriguez
Ambassador of Nicaragua
Ambassador Quant Rodriguez completed her studies in Paris and Madrid and has a bachelor of law, a master’s of law and a master’s of public administration. She also has a diploma in consular protection and human rights from the Universidad Centroamericana UCA in Managua, Nicaragua.
Her career began in 2008 at Nicaragua’s ministry of environment and natural resources in the international conventions area. She then became a legal adviser at the National Port Authority of Nicaragua from 2009 to 2011, at which time she became first secretary with consular functions at the embassy of Nicaragua in Spain. She stayed in that job until she was named minister-counsellor, between 2014 and 2016.
Quant Rodriguez speaks French, English and Spanish and is a member of the “Association des Juristes Panthéon-Sorbonne Complutense.”
Enrique Ruiz Molero
Ambassador of Spain
Ambassador Ruiz Molero joined the foreign service in 1979 after completing a bachelor’s degree in law and studies at the Spanish Diplomatic School in Madrid.
At the foreign ministry, he has held numorous positions, including deputy-director of multilateral economic and development relations, deputy director of human resources, deputy-director of the Spanish Diplomatic School and director general of the foreign service. At one time, he also had responsibility for bilateral economic relations with European countries and the European free trade areas.
His most recent foreign postings have included ambassador to Mauritania and Mali (2000-2004); consul-general in Perignan, France (2004-2008); and consul-general in Los Angeles (2010-2013.)
The ambassador, who was born in Tetuan, Morocco, is married and has two children.
Sibongiseni Dlamini-Mntambo
High Commissioner for South Africa
Sibongiseni Dlamini-Mntambo joined South Africa’s department of international relations and co-operation in 2016.
She started her career as a teacher in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, in 1993, but she left teaching to pursue a career in communications, marketing and advertising. She worked within the heavy mineral industry and was the public affairs and communications adviser for South Africa’s Chamber of Mines.
Her government work was with the departments of economic affairs and tourism; minerals and energy; and higher education and training. She also worked on South Africa’s 2004 and 2006 elections while with the Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa.
The high commissioner has been involved in humanitarian work as a trustee of a non-profit organization, volunteering her time and expertise pro bono. She has given assistance to a school in Johannesburg that caters mainly to children from very poor backgrounds. She is a proud mother of two girls and a boy.
Dionisio Pérez Jácome
Ambassador of Mexico
Prior to this appointment, Ambassador Pérez Jácome was Permanent Representative of Mexico to the OECD in Paris.
He has held various positions within the Mexican government, including secretary of communications and transport, undersecretary of expenditures at the finance and public credit secretariat and chief adviser to the president.
Pérez Jácome served as president of the energy regulatory commission (2000–2005), and as head of investment promotion.
Pérez Jácome began his career in the agriculture secretariat,, where he participated in NAFTA negotiations and became Mexico’s first agriculture and forestry counsellor to Canada.
He also has considerable professional experience in the private sector.
He holds a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Non-heads of mission
China
Si Wang
Third secretary
Xiaozhong Zhu
First secretary
Congo
Juvenal Mwenge
Attaché
Cuba
Cristina Ramos Moreno
Counsellor
Germany
Patrick Butlaff
Attaché
Ghana
Philbert Johnson
Minister and chargé d’affaires
Guinea
Alhassane Diabate
First secretary
Japan
Sayaka Sakai
Attaché
Kazushi Miyatake
Counsellor
Latvia
Agris Ozolins
Defence, military, naval and air attaché
Lesotho
Thato Aba Jocina Mpakanyane
Third secretary
Nigeria
Oluwafemi Timothy Adeniyi
Second secretary
Panama
Victor Anel Ortega Campos
Third secretary
Philippines
Jeffrey Salik
Second secretary and consul
Poland
Pawel Eugeniusz Bartosinski
First secretary
Russia
Dmitry Shumov
Attaché
Rwanda
Igor Marara Kayinamura,
First counsellor
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Eustache Theodore J. Wallace
Counsellor
Saudi Arabia
Manal Ibrahim A. Lrebdi
Attaché
Sudan
Mautaz Faroug Mohamed Ahmed Abdelfarag
Attaché
United States of America
Jean Levens Pierre-Louis
First secretary
