New arrivals
Federico-Eduardo Hoyos-Salazar
Ambassador of Colombia
Prior to being posted to Canada, Ambassador Hoyos-Salazar was a house representative for Antioquia in Colombia’s Congress. He was elected for a four-year term in 2014 and was a member of the Second Constitutional Commission in charge of security and defence, foreign affairs and foreign trade. Between 2010 and 2013, he was a lecturer at the Pontificia Bolivariana University and EAFIT University, where he taught courses on public opinion and development. Between 2011 and 2014, he was an opinion columnist for El Colombiano newspaper.
The ambassador has a master’s degree in government and policy and a bachelor’s degree in political science from EAFIT University.
Roger Julien Menga
Ambassador of Congo
Ambassador Menga began his diplomatic career in 1978 as head of the Eastern European section at the foreign ministry. He became head of the legal affairs division in 1979. He remained at headquarters in various roles until 1985 when he was sent to Senegal as first counsellor. In 1990, he became first counsellor to the Benelux countries, based in Belgium. In 1997, he was posted to France as chargé d’affaires, with concurrent accreditation to Spain, Portugal, Britain and the Holy See.
In 1999, he became permanent representative to the World Trade Organization in Geneva and between 2001 and 2008, he was ambassador to Switzerland. From 2009 to 2017, he returned to Belgium as ambassador to all three Benelux countries.
The ambassador has two degrees in international studies and speaks four languages: Lingala, French, Russian and English.
Gnagno Philibert Fagnidi
Ambassador of Côte d’Ivoire
Ambassador Fagnidi joined the foreign service in 1977 and took on his first posting two years later as counsellor at the embassy of France, where he spent the following 12 years. In 1991, he returned to headquarters as head of the European division after which he became deputy-director of personnel. In 1997, he became deputy-director of the UN and international meetings division.
For eight months in 1998, he was posted as first secretary to the embassy in Tunisia and was soon after made chargé d’affaires, a posting he held until January 2001. He returned to headquarters as director of African integration and international co-operation from 2001 to 2003 and then served as director of the African department. In 2004, he returned to Tunisia as ambassador for two years before being sent to Russia as ambassador between 2006 and 2011. He returned to headquarters as interim director of human resources before he was sent to Canada as ambassador.
Raza Bashir Tarar
High Commissioner for Pakistan
High Commissioner Tarar joined the foreign service in 1987, beginning his career with professional training, followed by Japanese language studies.
His foreign postings began with the Philippines between 1991 and 1994, then Belgium from 1999 to 2002, Japan in 2003 and the U.S. (New York) from 2008 to 2013. While in New York, he served as deputy permanent representative to the United Nations and the Security Council.
Between 2015 and 2019, he served as high commissioner for Kenya with concurrent accreditation to Burundi, Eritrea, Rwanda and Uganda. He also served as permanent representative to the United Nations, including its Environment Program (UNEP) and United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat).
At headquarters, he served as director-general for disarmament from 2013 to 2015. The high commissioner is married and has two children.
Kerim Uras
Ambassador of Turkey
Ambassador Uras joined the foreign service in 1985, beginning his career in the Greece-Cyprus department. For a year starting in 1987, he did his military service and on return, he became an attaché in Turkey’s NATO department.
In 1989, he was posted as vice-consul to the consulate-general in Germany and three years later, he went to the embassy in Cyprus. He returned to headquarters in 1995 as first secretary in the Middle East department and then as head of the bilateral relations department. He was counsellor in London from 1997 to 2001.
In 2003, he became head of the Iraq department and was later sent to New York as first counsellor to the permanent mission at the UN. In 2010, he was appointed ambassador to Israel and became ambassador to Greece in 2011. He was chief foreign policy adviser to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan before his appointment to Canada.
Urban Christian Ahlin
Ambassador of Sweden
Ambassador Ahlin comes to diplomacy from politics. In 1994, he was elected as a Member of Parliament at the Riksdagen, the Swedish Parliament. He served on the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Parliamentary Assembly and as chairman of its socialist group for several years. He was also on the parliamentary foreign affairs committee from 1995 to 2014 and served as its chairman from 2002 to 2006. He then served as deputy chairman from 2006 to 2014. From 2014 to 2018, he was speaker and chairman of the Riksdag Board.
The ambassador is also a founding member of the European Council of Foreign Relations and a member of the board of directors of the EastWest Institute.
From 1990 to 1994, he was a teacher, a position he took after completing a master’s of science education program at the University of Karlstad. He is married to Jenni Ahlin and has two daughters.
Salome Meyer
Ambassador of Switzerland
Ambassador Meyer joined the foreign service in 2001. Before that, she worked in web application and development and then for the Swisspeace Foundation as a researcher into early warning in armed conflicts. Her first posting took place between 2001 and 2003 as a diplomatic trainee posted to Korea.
She returned to headquarters in 2003 as desk officer for bilateral affairs with Germany and Central Europe. She became head of political and legal affairs in 2007 and stayed in that position for four years, before being appointed deputy head of mission in China. From 2015 to 2018, she was diplomatic adviser to the president of Switzerland.
The ambassador has a master’s in modern history from the University of Bern. She is married to Marije Johanna Rebecca Bijl.
Non-heads of mission
Afghanistan
Ahmad Fahim Ebrat
First secretary
Argentina
Fernando Patricio Valentich
Air attaché
Australia
Adam Peter Turner
Second secretary
William Stephen Ewing
First secretary
Brazil
Elisiane Rubin Rossato
Second secretary
Luciana Pimenta Ambrozevicius
Attaché
Brunei Darussalam
Muhd Ali-Azri Mohd Alipah
Second secretary
China
Haitao Zhang
Counsellor
Baoming Xie
Second secretary
Zhiqiang Xu
Second secretary
Chengshu Xiong
Attaché
Colombia
William Hernando Cabrera Castro
Military, naval and air attaché
Côte d’Ivoire
Gouegone Florentin Vole Bi
First secretary
Croatia
Diana Strkalj
Minister-counsellor
Denmark
Louise De Brass
Second secretary
Ethiopia
Bethelhem Ayalew Melaku
First secretary
Abdulaziz Muhammed Yibrie
First secretary
Gambia
Pa Sako Darboe
First secretary
Mustapha Sosseh
Deputy head of mission
Lamin B.Jaiteh
Counsellor
Ousman Fisco Njie
Counsellor
Haiti
Nesly Numa
Counsellor
India
Vijay Bhatia
Minister
Indonesia
Agus Budima
Attaché
Iraq
Mohsin Ali Mohsin Mohsin
Attaché
Italy
Giuseppe Benedetto Reitano
Second secretary
Japan
Akira Imamura
Minister and deputy head of mission
Kazakhstan
Dinazat Kassymova
First secretary
Kenya
John Lepi Lanyasunya
Deputy naval attaché
Mexico
Erick Marco Zendejas Hinestrosa
Naval attaché
Ruben Dario Bautista Alatorre
Attaché
Myanmar
Kyaw Zin Oo
Attaché
New Zealand
Mark Paul Leddy
First secretary
Norway
Petter Meier
Counsellor
Philippines
Alan Deniega
Minister and consul
Saudi Arabia
Malak Saud F. Alqahtani
Attaché
Thailand
Alshalit Boonjit
First secretary
Turkey
Utku Kundakci
Counsellor
United Kingdom
Stuart Alan Bruce
Second secretary
United States of America
Michael Thomas Clark
First secretary
Michael Edward Buckley
Attaché
Vietnam
The Huy Pham
Second secretary
