New heads of mission
Barna Karimi
Ambassador of Afghanistan
Mr. Karimi, a young ambassador at just 37, has a bachelor of business marketing and a master’s of business administration from the University of Phoenix.
After graduation, he worked his way up to the position of general manager of a shoe company called Triton Inc. He then went on to found his own wholesale corporation, Alma USA Enterprise Inc., which was based in Los Angeles.
In June 2005, he returned to Afghanistan to take up the position of deputy chief of staff to President Hamid Karzai. Two years later, he was appointed deputy minister of policy and coordination in the independent directorate of local governance. He remained in that position until his appointment as ambassador to Canada.
Mr. Karimi is married to Storai Karimi and they have a two-year-old daughter.
Amadou Adrien Koné
Ambassador of Burkina Faso
Mr. Koné studied economics at the University of Benin and later went to the University of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso and the National School of Administration Ouagadougou. He has a master’s in economic planning.
Before coming to Canada, he spent a little more than a year as secretary general of the cabinet in the government of Burkina Faso. Before that, he spent a year as secretary general to the president. From 2003 to 2006, he was an economic counsellor to the president and before that, minister of economic affairs and development. In addition, he has held numerous other positions in the government, dating back to 1984.
Mr. Koné is married and has three children.
N’Goran Kouame
Ambassador of Côte d’Ivoire
Mr. Kouame studied arts and social sciences at the University d’Abidjan, after which he studied diplomacy in Brussels.
After completing his studies, he started his career in the foreign service in 1977 with a job in the department of finance and administration. The following year he became deputy director of personnel and one year later received his first posting to London, as chargé d’affaires.
When he returned to headquarters, he held several positions, including as head of the organizing committee for the first summit between Africans and African-Americans. In 1996, he received the title of ambassador and became chief of the cabinet in the foreign ministry. He later worked in international cooperation.
From 2000 to 2006, he was ambassador to Switzerland and then returned to headquarters as inspector general of diplomatic posts before being appointed to Canada.
Mr. Kouame is married and has four children.
Frantz Liautaud
Ambassador of Haiti
Mr. Liautaud has served as president of the Haitian-Canadian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The former businessman has a civil engineering degree from the School of Public Works in Paris and also studied at the University of California in Los Angeles.
He moved to Haiti in 1974 after having worked for a time in France and the United States. The property developer went on to have a long career in the private sector, at one time working with sports groups at national and international levels.
In addition to serving as ambassador, he is also secretary general of The Caribbean & Central America Tennis Confederation, honourary president of the Haitian-Canadian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and honourary president of the Haitian Federation of Tennis.
Thordur Aegir Oskarsson
Ambassador of Iceland
Mr. Oskarsson came to diplomacy within the first five years of his career, after working as a researcher and parliamentary correspondent for the newspaper Timinn.
His first diplomatic title, as first secretary, came in 1988 and two years later, he was assigned to Iceland’s delegation to NATO. In 1997, he became director for defence and was promoted to ambassador a year later. He has served as Iceland’s permanent representative to the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe), UNOV (United Nationals Office in Vienna), IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), CTBTO (Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization) and as ambassador to Austria, with dual accreditation to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary and Slovakia. In 2004, he was ambassador to Japan and later spent two years as special representative to the Palestinian Authority. He returned to headquarters briefly before coming to Canada.
He has a master’s in international affairs and is married to Sigurborg Oddsdottir. They have two children.
Konstantin Zhigalov
Ambassador of Kazakhstan
Mr. Zhigalov studied at Kazakh State University. He has a doctorate in history.
He began his career in 1984, as a researcher, lecturer and consultant in politics, before becoming political assistant to the president. In 1993, he was appointed deputy foreign minister after which he became head of the international department of the president’s office and a foreign adviser to the president.
In 1996, he saw his first diplomatic appointment, as minister-counsellor to Great Britain and Northern Ireland, after which he became ambassador to Poland. He also served as ambassador to Belgium, with responsibility for the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the missions to the EU and NATO. He was made deputy foreign minister again in 2009 before being appointed to Canada.
He speaks Russian, English and Polish and is married with three children.
Ami Diallo Traoré
Ambassador of Mali
Ms Traoré studied in the faculty of political science at the University of Belgrade and has a master’s degree in international relations.
A career diplomat, Ms Traoré began her work with the foreign ministry in 1985. She became head of the Europe-America section in 1994 and, in 1995, was sent to Germany as second counsellor. Between 2004 and 2005, she became deputy-director of international cooperation at headquarters and was promoted to director a year later. In 2006, she was named a first secretary and was sent to Mali’s mission at the United Nations. The following year, she became chargé d’affaires at the same mission.
Ms Traoré is married to Abdoulaye Traoré and has three daughters.
Bobby Mbunji Samakai
High Commissioner for Zambia
Mr. Samakai completed a diploma in communications and diplomacy in 1980 and in 1995, he studied diplomacy and international studies at the Zambia Institute of Diplomatic Studies.
He began his diplomatic career in 1982 as a third secretary at the UN mission in New York, where he was promoted to second secretary. In 1992, he was appointed senior executive officer at headquarters before becoming chief of protocol with the rank of ambassador. He later went on to become deputy permanent secretary to the ministry of transport and community, and was later transferred to the ministry of sport, youth and child development as permanent secretary. In 2009, he became chief of state protocol and in 2011, permanent secretary of foreign affairs.
Mr. Samakai speaks several languages, including English, Lunda, Bemba, Nyanja, Luvale and Kaonde. He is married.
Photos by MCpl Dany Veillette, Rideau Hall
Non-heads of mission
Australia
Julie Ann Pettrey,
Counsellor
Belgium
Jonas Valerius Juliana De Meyer,
Second secretary
Brazil
Manoel Araujo Da Costa Junior,
Alternate representative
Bulgaria
Ivan Ventzeslavov Anchev,
Counsellor
Burundi
Else Nizigama Ntamagiro,
First counsellor and chargé d’affaires
China
Wenzhi Zhou,
Minister-Counsellor
Li Bi,
First secretary
Xin Ma,
Third secretary
Qiong Wu,
Attaché and vice-consul
Fang Jiang,
Third secretary
Zhuoxian Gao,
First secretary
Dominican Republic
Ricardo Alberto Almonte Arias,
Minister-counsellor
France
Cyril Pierre Henri Pinel,
Counsellor
Georgia
Lasha Tchigladze,
Minister-counsellor
Germany
Ronny Ritschel,
Attaché
Ghana
Adisa Yakubu,
Counsellor
Haiti
Carlo Severe,
Minister-counsellor
Marie Michel Geralde Carre Alerte,
Minister-counsellor
Iceland
Heimir Berg Vilhjalmsson,
Attaché
India
Anantha Sathesh Shenoy,
Attaché
Raj Kumar,
Attaché
Rana Pratap Pavithran,
Attaché
Indonesia
Taufiq Lamsuhur,
Second secretary
Iraq
Kamil Mustafa Kamil Al-Sereah,
Attaché
Japan
Shigeru Matsubara,
Technical expert
Yojiro Ushio,
Second secretary
Junya Osamura,
First secretary
Kazakhstan
Nurlan Zhanbatyrov,
Second secretary
Mali
Amadou Ba,
Second counselor
Mexico
Norma Kobeh Gonzalez,
Adviser
Saul Salvador Ronquillo Garcia,
Counsellor
Mongolia
Eldev-Ochir Lkhagvaa,
Minister-counsellor
Morocco
Aziz Boulmane,
Permanent representative
Norway
Maryann Locka,
Counsellor
Peru
Luis Miguel Picardo Martinez,
Alternate representative
Julio Cesar Roman Samander,
Defence attaché
Philippines
Abraham Estavillo,
Deputy head of mission
Ronald Allan Fernandez,
Attaché
Russia
Anton Vannovskiy,
Counsellor
Sergey Moseychuk,
Attaché
Maxim Kopylov,
First secretary
Andrey Kholin,
Third secretary
Saudi Arabia
Ahmed Mohammed I Zafer,
Attaché
Fahad Hamad M. Aljumah,
Attaché
Senegal
Mariam Ndiaye Sakho,
Second secretary
South Africa
Marga Elizabeth De Villiers,
Third secretary
Spain
Jose Antonio Mellado Valverde,
Attaché
José Garcia Molina,
Counsellor
South Korea
Chong Suk Park,
Counsellor
Song Oh,
Minister
Jung Chae Lee,
Second secretary and consul
Ukraine
Marko Shevchenko,
Counsellor and chargé d’affaires
United Kingdom
Richard Nicholas Anthony Rose,
Second secretary
U.S.A.
Richard Charles Kolker,
Second secretary and vice-consul
Shohini Sarah Sinha,
Assistant attaché
Cynthia Jean Loyet,
Adviser
Charles John Cassidy,
Naval attaché
Vietnam
Trong Luong Dinh,
Counsellor
Zambia
Sylvia Bambala Chalikosa
Deputy high commissioner
Jennifer Konjela Manda,
Third secretary
